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TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE 



A RECORD OF A 



SUMMER VACATION ABROAD. 



-BY 



O. R. BURCHARD, A. M., 

[INSTRUCTOR in the state normal school, fredonia, n. v. 



1YRACUSE, N. Y.: 

DAVIS, BARDEEN & CO., PUBLISHERS. 

NEW YORK*. BAKER, PRATT & CO. 

1879. 



IV PREFACE. 

their present form simply to indicate to those who think of going abroad, 
but wonder whether a summer vacation is time enough to be of any service, 
what they may reasonably hope to accomplish. 

The author has had in mind only to give a brief but faithful account of 
what will be most likely to interest the traveler who goes for profit as well 
as pleasure. He has endeavored to represent things fairly, and without 
that gush of admiration with which the coolest of us often see things for the 
first time. Personal allusions and experiences, which are of no value or 
interest to a stranger, have been as far as possible avoided, and the single 
aim has been kept in view of giving a plain and straight forward account of 
a summer's tour. 

If the book should recall pleasing memories to those who have had 
the pleasure of a foreign trip, and, most of all should be instrumental in in- 
ducing young people to visit, even hastily, the old world, and thus have the 
life-long enjoyment of the pleasure and knowledge which such a trip gives, 
the author will be more than satisfied. 

March 20, 1879. 



Bequest 

Albert Adsit demons 

Aug. 24, 1938 

c{Uot available for exchange ^ 



TWO MONTHS II EUROPE. 



CHAPTER I. 



ON THE OCEAN. 



THE departure of an ocean steamer is always an event of 
1 considerable importance. For several hours before the 
time of sailing the dock is crowded with baggage, people are 
hurrying down in carriages, men and women are rushing along 
on foot, passengers and their friends are crowding on board 
the vessel, the whole making a perfect pandemonium of noise 
and confusion. On the morning of our departure, toward the 
latter part of June, in addition to all this, nature was weeping 
most abundantly and constantly, evidently sympathizing with 
the travelers and their friends. 

The half hour bell sounds and the crowd on the steamer 
begins to lessen and that on the wharf to increase. The ten 
minute bell only adds to the confusion, and at the last moment 
the shore people on board the steamer rush frantically off, the 
bridge is drawn, the hawsers cast from the pier, the engine be- 
begins to move, there is a great splashing of the water at the 
stern of the vessel, gradually the vast steamer seems to have 
the breath of life infused into her, and slowly she leaves the 



6 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

wharf amid the farewell calls of friends, the waving of hand- 
kerchiefs, the shouting of the crowd, and the friendly whistle 
of passing steam vessels. 

The waving of handkerchiefs continues until we lose sight 
of the wharf, and is kept up still later by those whose zealous 
friends follow them down the harbor in tugs. Our steamer 
being a new one, and this her first departure from New York, 
she was escorted down the harbor by several tugs and passen- 
ger vessels. Our captain said that whenever there were any 
Brooklyn ministers on board such a company of steam vessels 
always followed them down the harbor, and with the remark 
that we would probably find two or three of them concealed 
among the passengers, he went forward. We afterward found 
a couple of them among the passengers. At length our little 
fleet of tugs turn back and leaves us with a final salute of 
cannon and steam whistles, and we are soon opposite the light- 
ship at Sandy Hook. 

On the way down the bay the passengers walk the upper 
deck, taking their last look at the beautiful fields below Brook- 
lyn, the green hills of Staten Island, and the low-lying Jersey 
shore in the distance. Many of the passengers write letters 
or postal cards, which can be sent back by the pilot, and will 
be the last that friends can hear from them until we are in 
sight of the Irish coast. 

Just outside the light ship we begin to feel the ocean swell, 
and the great steamer rises and falls in a way that makes many 
think with dreadful forebodings of the future. Soon some of 
the passengers, quietly and without remark, go down to their 
state-rooms, while others sit upon the upper deck in a thought- 
ful, meditative way, until gradually a paleness steals over their 



ON THE OCEAN. 7 

faces, and after half an hour or so they quietly disappear be- 
low. Others of a resolute nature, who have determined that 
as for them, they will not be seasick, walk rapidly up and down 
the deck fighting in vain the grim monster which is literally 
clutching their vitals. Experienced sailors and those who are 
not at all affected by the sea, lounge leisurely about and enjoy 
the fresh breeze and the discomfort of their unfortunate fellow 
passengers. 

By the time the steamer has been out a few hours and the 
land has disappeared from sight, the dividing line between 
those who are to be sick and those who are to stand the voy- 
age, is pretty fairly drawn. If the weather is at all rough, half 
the passengers will not be at the table the first meal, and some 
will not befseen at all during the passage. For seasickness 
there seems to be no permanent or certain cure. What re- 
lieves one does another no good, but- forced contributions to 
the Atlantic are a general relief to all who are affected. 

Our voyage was a very monotonous one, having fog and 
quiet weather nearly all the way. Once, on the banks of New- 
foundland, the monotony was broken by running down a fish- 
ing smack from Beverly, Mass., which was anchored directly 
across our course. I can never forget how wildly the fisher- 
men ran to the stern of their vessel as the black hull of the 
steamer suddenly appeared to rush out of the dense fog, bear- 
ing down on them directly amidship and scarcely two hundred 
yards away. Almost instant death threatens them, for in less 
than half a minute they expect to be run down by the steamer. 
But they are seen from our vessel and she is instantly turned 
from her course, so that only the bowsprit of the fishing smack 
is cut off close up to the hull, and the shattered vessel grates 



5 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

harshly against the iron side of the steamer as we pass along. 
Our steamer is stopped, the men taken from their sinking ves- 
sel, and we are on our course again through the interminable 
fog. 

There is nothing that strikes a greater feeling of dread 
through a passenger than the shrill fog whistle sounding omin- 
ously in his ears day and night, and this is particularly so after 
a misfortune like ours. Without having passed through the 
experience one can hardly conceive how many imaginary ves- 
sels we ran down or how many imaginary icebergs we ran into 
during the remaining days of the fog. Occasionally the dense 
mist would clear away for a few hours and we would have a 
view of the boundless ocean, with not a living thing in sight 
except ourselves, but on every side the hemisphere of the sky 
seemed to shut down upon us like the cover to some great 
bowl. 

During the voyage the passengers amuse themselves in vari- 
ous ways with games, reading, music, conversation, and one 
day the lawyers, of whom we had an abundant supply on 
board, gave us a moot court, which was scarcely less amusing 
than some of the transactions of the real ones. They also 
interest themselves in watching the sky, the record of each 
day's course, the officers as they take the position of the ship 
at noon, the varied working of the vessel, and the wonderful 
donkey engines as they raise and lower the sails and apparently 
do all the heavy work on the steamer. Occasionally we see 
whales spouting in the distance, and some with well developed 
imagination see icebergs in the far away horizon. They also 
note the increasing length of the days as we sail north, the 
apparent gaining of time as we go toward the east, and the 
gradually increasing cold. 



ON THE OCEAN. 9 

The ladies are generally very curious to know all about 
navigation, and are, in their irresistible way, besieging the 
officers, when off duty, for all kinds of nautical information. 
A lady evidently of the strong minded kind, who had- many 
years before passed the culminating point of her youth and 
beauty, got hold of our fun-loving Scotch captain one day, 
and pointing to the long line which was dragging behind the 
vessel, to which was fastened the instrument for recording the 
distance made by the steamer, in a very decided way said : 

"Captain, I want to know why you have that long rope 
dragging behind the steamer ?" 

" To tell how far we go each day, mam," said the captain, 
-cheerfully. 

" But I don't see how you can tell from t/iat," remonstrated 

the lady. 

"I cannot explain it to you," said the captain, "so that you 

would understand it." 

"Yes I can, I am sure," she said, eagerly, resenting the in- 
sinuation that there was anything on the earth, in the sea or 
in the heavens which she could not understand. 

After a great deal of urging on her part and an equal 
amount of gentle refusing on his, during which a crowd of 
the passengers had gathered around them, knowing from the 
mischief in the captain's eye that there was some fun ahead, 
he finally said : 

" Now that you insist on it so urgently I will try and tell 
you, although I have not much hope that you will understand it. 
The truth of the matter is, madam," said he in a loud con- 
fidential whisper which could have been heard by five hundred 
people, while at the same time a smile broadened over his 



IO TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

weather beaten face, " I have a sailor tied to the end of the 
rope, who counts the milestones on the bottom of the ocean." 
At length one morning the captain informs us that in the 
afternoon we shall probably see land. What a thrill goes 
through us as we think of seeing land once more, and this time 
the shore of that old world whose wonders and beauties have 
for so long a time filled our imagination. How eagerly we 
all watch in the direction where the land will probably 
appear, each one hoping to be the first to see the rugged shore 
and green hills of Ireland. At length some one calls — 
"Land in sight!" and we all strain our eyes in the direction 
indicated but we only see what seems to be a light cloud rest- 
ing upon the water. Much against the evidences of our senses 
we are persuaded that this is land, the green shore we had 
pictured in imagination, and with a sigh of disappointment 
we turn away. 

The captain promises to have us called at two o'clock the 
next morning (it is broad day light here by this time) to see 
the coast off the Giant's Causeway. Coming on deck at this 
early hour we find on all sides of us, in some places less than 
one-fourth of a mile distant, the rugged and abrupt shore and 
out lying islands of the Irish coast, which have for so many 
centuries battled with the full force of the Atlantic. It is a 
dangerous place in a storm, but we steam along in a quiet sea, 
and wonder at the giant mass of black rock along the shore, 
and admire the green fields and white cottages of the peasants. 

The almost constant mist and fog which are found on the 
Irish and Scotch coasts, give an intensely green color to the 
grass and trees, so that the hills as we look upon them for the 
first time after our long voyage, seem the greenest and most 



ON THE OCEAN. II 

beautiful we have ever known, and give us a most pleasing 
welcome to the old world. We pass near the Causeway, close 
enough to see its remarkable basaltic formation which extends 
along the coast for several miles. The high rocks near which 
we occasionally sail return a quick, sharp echo to the shrill 
whistle of the steamer, and this echo is sometimes faintly 
repeated from some more distant rock. 

By eight o'clock of as lovely a day as Scotland ever saw, we 
are coming up the broad Firth of Clyde, with the beautiful 
green hills, and back of them the rugged mountains of " Bonnie 
Scotland " visible in the distance. For four hours we sail 
through as fine a stream with as beautiful shores as the sun 
shines upon, and we do not blame the Scotchman for loving 
his native land, since we strangers cannot help joining him in 
its admiration. 

We reach the harbor of Greenock, at the mouth of the 
Clyde, which is probably the most important seaport of Scot- 
land. It is constantly filled with steamers of all sizes, more 
than a hundred daily plying to all parts of the coast and in- 
deed of the world. Greenock is noted particularly for ship 
building and sugar refining. There is, however, little in the 
place to interest the traveler, unless he wishes to visit the Watt 
Institute, established as a memorial of James Watt, the inven- 
tor of the steam engine, who was a native of this place ; or if 
romantically inclined he may wander into the cemetery of the 
old church where Burns' " Highland Mary " is buried. 

After sticking for nearly an hour upon the bar at the mouth 
of the Clyde, we finally pass up the river toward Glasgow 
which is 23 miles distant. On the left is the fine residence 
and grounds of Stevens, the great ship builder, and directly 



12 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

in front of us, up the river, the rock and castle of Dumbarton. 
This nearly perpendicular rock rises several hundred feet 
above the river, and was an important fortress in the early 
wars between the Britons and Scots. In the varied vicissi- 
tudes of border warfare it has known many masters, but is 
associated chiefly with the daring exploits of the historic 
Wallace, one of whose many massive two-handed swords is now 
among the relics in its armory. It also figured conspicuously 
in the romantic history of the beautiful but unfortunate Queen 
Mary. It is even yet a fortress of considerable strength and 
commands the passage of the river. 

A little way above this is the ivy covered end of a very old 
wall said to have been built by the Romans, and upon this a 
plain monument erected to the memory of Henry Bell, who 
launched the first steamer on the Clyde. A few miles further 
up on the opposite side of the river, we pass the home of the 
poorest lord in Scotland. As we see his fine residence in the 
midst of a beautiful park of more than a hundred acres, we 
cannot help but feel sorry for the poor fellow compelled to 
live in such a place, and our hand involuntarily reaches into 
our pocket to contribute a penny or two to relieve his distress. 
On either side of the river are carefully cultivated and very 
productive fields, which yield crops of hay, that are a wonder 
to American eyes. 

As we near Glasgow, yards for building iron ships are on 
either side, and the constant clang of hammers is deafening. 
More than half the iron ships afloat are Clyde built, and 
although the times are hard in England as well as in America, 
we saw nearly one hundred on the stocks in various stages of 
completion. It is with the greatest difficulty that the Clyde, 



ON THE OCEAN. 13 

which is only a small river, can be kept open for steam naviga- 
tion. A large number of dredges are constantly employed in 
deepening the channel. This work, which must be continually 
done over, is a great tax upon the city of Glasgow, but she 
cheerfully assumes it, for her supremacy depends on keeping 
the Clyde open to ocean steamers. 

By the help of two tugs, one at each end of the steamer, we 
work our way slowly up the narrow stream, and when within a 
few miles of the city our vessel becomes firmly fastened in the 
mud, the prow and stern on opposite banks. We are trans- 
ferred to a tug, and our baggage to another, and there we 
leave our grand steamer, which has carried us so proudly over 
the ocean, ignominiously stuck in the mud in the little Clyde, 
and with many a regret at parting with her under such circum- 
stances and so near her destination, we steam up to Glasgow. 

After passing the Custom House, that bug-bear of travelers, 
we are at our hotel, a genuine American house. The wife of 
the proprietor is an American, and all the furniture which is 
new and of the Eastlake pattern, came from America, the 
greater part being made to order at Grand Rapids, Michigan. 
The familiar look of things makes it seem almost as if after 
our long voyage we had landed on American soil. And here 
in the midst of these surroundings, at the very threshold ot 
the old world and all it has in store for us, we sleep soundly 
our first night on the dry land of the trans-Atlantic world. 



14 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

CHAPTER II. 
THE SCOTTISH LAKES AND STIRLING CASTLE. 

GLASGOW has a remarkable history. A hundred years ago 
it was a small city of less than 50,000 inhabitants and with- 
out importance, but to-day it is the commercial metropolis of 
Scotland, and has a population of 600,000. Its inhabitants 
have shown a remarkable enterprise in building up manufac- 
tories, and in developing the mineral resources of the neighbor- 
ing counties. The almost numberless tall chimneys with their 
clouds of smoke, and the continual noise of numerous iron 
works, remind us of our own Pittsburgh. 

To the tourist the city has few attractions. The chief of 
these is the old Cathedral, which was built in the twelfth cen- 
tury and is one of the few in all Scotland which survived the 
mad fury of the populace during the times of the Reformation. 
The building is very large, more than three hundred feet long, 
and most of its carvings and interior decorations are in a fine 
state of preservation. Its crypts are the finest and most mas- 
sive of any in the kingdom. But the pride of the cathedral 
is its beautiful, great, stained-glass windows, of which it has 
forty-four, from twenty-five to thirty feet in height, each rep- 
resenting some well known Bible event. These windows were 
made about ten years ago at Munich, and are the perfection 
of modern art. Adjoining the Cathedral is the Necropolis, or 
Cemetery, beautifully laid out and containing many fine monu- 
ments. Conspicuous among these is one to John Knox, whose 
body, however, is buried at Edinborough. We noticed also 



THE SCOTTISH LAKES AND STIRLING CASTLE. 1 5 

that of John Dick, the eminent theologian. Other things in 
the city, worthy of mention, are George Square with its colos- 
sal monument to Sir Walter Scott; Glasgow Green containing 
a fine monument to Nelson, England's favorite hero ; and the 
New University buildings. In one of the poorest streets of 
the old city we are shown the quarters once occupied by 
Cromwell. 

The most noticeable thing about the city to an American just 
landed, is the massiveness and solidity of the buildings, for 
they are mostly of cut stone with tile or slate roofs. There 
are almost no buildings made of wood and but few of brick, 
and the streets are all paved with stone. This gives an im- 
pression that the city is built to stand for all time and accords 
with our generally accepted opinion of Scotch thoroughness. 
Yet miles and miles of streets with stone houses and stone 
paving, everything stone, gives the city a monotony of dull 
color which finally becomes wearisome, until the eye longs for 
something bright and even for a little outside paint. 

Strolling down to one of the public squares, one evening, a 
member of our party found an excited crowd of two or three 
hundred working men discussing the merits of Protestantism 
and Catholicism. One had been making a speech on the sub- 
ject and was reading proof passages from a small copy of the 
Testament. Some one gave notice that the next night there 
would be a discussion on the favorite Scotch theme — Fore- 
ordination. In what American city, or any city in the world 
outside of Scotland, will you find day laborers discussing until 
late at night questions in theology and metaphysics ? 

The increased length of the day, owing to extreme northern 
latitude, becomes plainly noticeable, for I was able to read fine 



1 6 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

print by daylight after 10 o'clock at night, while daybreak 
comes about 2 o'clock. Indeed in clear weather the morning 
and evening twilight almost overlap. The policeman with his 
pot-shaped cap is everywhere, a constant terror to evil-disposed 
small boys, who at once take to their heels when the cry is 
raised, '-The Bobbies are coming." I knew a worthy Ameri- 
can lady who on her first day in Glasgow, in an innocent way 
asked, "What kind of a musical instrument is a bobby?" 

Leaving Glasgow by early train we soon reach Balloch, on 
Loch Lomond, where we take steamer for Inversnaid, near the 
opposite end of the lake, a sail of nearly thirty miles. A 
Scotch mist as it is politely called, (we should say a rain storm) 
soon settled down upon us, and although it was the fourth of 
July, and we had on our overcoats, we were shivering in the 
cold wind. The Highlanders have a saying that " When 
Ben Lomond puts on his night cap the rain will come down," 
and as we looked up toward the mountain and saw his head 
obscured with clouds, and the rain falling around us, we de- 
cided that there are weather signs which are true. Sailing up 
the lake which is surrounded by Scotland's highest mountains, 
we are in the midst of scenery scarcely equalled by any lake 
in Europe, Maggiore in Italy alone excepted. 

Nearly every mountain pass, rock and village is associated 
with some of Scott's characters. We see Balloch Castle, be- 
yond a ruined fortification, a traditional stronghold of Fingal ; 
a beatiful wooded island, the deer park of the Duke of Mont- 
rose ; Rob Roy's prison ; the rock from which he dipped 
refractory captives in the lake until they were willing to pay 
the required ransom; and his cave, which also sheltered 
Robert the Bruce. Near Inversnaid is the ruin of a fort once 
commanded by General Wolfe, the hero of Quebec. 



THE SCOTTISH LAKES AND STIRLING CASTLE. 1 7 

At Inversnaid we take coaches for Stronachlacker, on Loch 
Katrine. These coaches are the few remaining from the 
famous old English coach system, the drivers being dressed in 
red coats, plug hats and high top boots, as in the good old 
times before railroads were known, and when the coach was 
the pride of the Englishman. The four horses are started up 
the steep hill at a full run amid a fearful snapping of whips 
and a greater display of style than we had supposed the solid 
and sensible Englishman ever allowed himself to use. About 
this snapping of whips, I have yet to see the country in Europe 
where the drivers of all sorts of pleasure carriages are not 
provided with long whips which they delight to snap almost 
constantly. It seems to be a sort of understood arrangement 
between the driver and his horses, that the cracking of the 
whip means nothing more than to give the passengers the 
impression that the driver is whipping up his horses and going 
very fast. 

Shortly after leaving Inversnaid we pass the ruins of the 
house in which Helen McGregor, Rob Roy's wife, was born. 
The drive of two hours was over a desolate country, in the 
midst of high mountains whose sides are covered for the most 
part with heather, that merciful provision of nature for conceal- 
ing unsightly rocks and rugged mountain sides. Occasionally 
there was a little pasturage for sheep and a wretched looking 
stone house. The trees were few in number and mostly scrub 
oaks. Peat, which is abundant, is the only fuel. To an 
American the country looks forlorn, and it is his constant 
wonder why any one should fight either to gain or defend it. 

The little steamer Rob Roy carries us over the pretty Loch 
Katrine, which reminds us strikingly of our own Lake George. 



1 8 TWO MONTHS TN EUROPE. 

We pass " Ellen's Isle " and the "Silver Strand," where the 
fair heroine is represented as first meeting the Knight of 
Snowdoun. In less than an hour's time we are at the end of the 
lake near the "Goblin's Cave," where Douglas is represented 
as hiding his daughter when he took her from Roderick Dhu's 
island. For a mile we ride through the " Trossachs " or 
"Bristling Territory," a narrow, rugged gorge, so called from 
its many pointed rocks. This is the very center of the " Lady 
of the Lake " region, and filled with romantic interest. We 
pass Loch Achray and soon cross a small, single-arched 
bridge where, 

"And when the Brigg of Kirk was won 
The headmost horseman rode alone." 

Soon after on an eminence 

" Duncraggan's huts appear at last, 

And peep like moss-grown rocks half seen 

Half hidden in the copse so green." 

Not far beyond is "Coilantogle Ford," which was " Far be- 
yond Clan Alpine's outmost guard," the scene of the encounter 
between Roderick Uhu and Fitz James. 

Riding several miles farther we reach Callander, where the 
train for Stirling awaits us. Near Callander we pass through 
a forlorn looking village where the wretched inhabitants still 
speak only the original Gaelic. There is a settlement of the 
same kind near Stirling. This whole region through which we 
have been passing was studied carefully for years by Scott, as 
a preparation for his landscape descriptions in " Rob-Roy," 
"The Lady of the Lake," and "Waverly." The scene of 
Wordsworth's " Highland Girl " was also laid near Inversnaid. 
Deprived of these historic and romantic associations the region 
would lose much, if not all, of its interest. 



THE SCOTTISH LAKES AND STIRLING CASTLE. 10 

On the way to Stirling we pass first Donne, with its ruined 
castle, formerly a resort of the imperial families of Scotland. 
Next comes Dunblane with its partly renovated, ruined cath- 
edral, dating from iroo. One end of this has been roofed 
over and is used as a place of worship by the Presbyterians 
and the other in the same way by the English Church. It is 
interesting to us chiefly from Tannahill's song, "Jessie, the 
Flower of Dunblane." Two miles beyond is Bridge of Allen, 
a delightfully situated watering place, visited by 40,000 to 
50,000 people annually. Just beyond Allan and not far from 
Stirling, on Abby Craig, 360 feet above the sea, is the beauti- 
ful Wallace monument, 220 feet high, modeled from the old 
Scottish baronial style. 

A mile more and we are at Stirling, from whose lofty castle 
walls more historic territory can be seen than from any other 
point in England or Scotland. 

History is unable to name a time when there was not a fort 
upon the lofty and precipitous rock on which Stirling castle is 
situated. A part of the present fortifications is known to have 
been built by the Romans. This splendid castle, the key to 
the land of the Scots, has been held time and again succes- 
sively by the Scotch and English. Its last siege and capture 
was by General Monk, under the great Cromwell, in 1657. A 
long line of Scottish kings, from James the I. to the VI. occu- 
pied it. Kings were born here, crowned here and died here. 
From its lofty walls on a clear day twelve of Scotland's great 
battle fields can be seen, including Bannockburn, where Bruce 
with 40,000 men defeated 100,000 English, and won the inde- 
pendence of Scotland. 

In the far distance Arthur's Seat, a mountain near Edin- 



20 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

burgh, 40 miles away, is just in sight. The whole north is 
shut in by the Highlands, while to the south and east can be 
seen the mazy, winding course of the Forth, the richness of 
whose lands is embodied in an old proverb — " A crook of the 
Forth is worth an earldom of the north." To the south, as 
far away as the eye can reach, can be seen the flag staff erected 
upon the field of Bannockburn. Just below the castle is the 
field on which the tournaments used to be fought, and the 
ground yet shows the formation of the lists. As we looked 
down from the old walls upon the tilting ground we could 
almost see the gay equipments of armored knights, as they col- 
lected upon the field preparing for the combat. Part way 
down the rock is the Ladies' Seat, from which the ladies of the 
court viewed the contests of arms and feats of strength. 

The high ramparts from which the whole surrounding coun- 
try can be seen are named respectively Victoria's Look-out 
and Mary's Look-out. The former was a favorite place with 
the present queen and her consort during their visit in 1842. 
Their initials are cut on the walls, and the traveler is invited 
to stand upon the stone from which the queen viewed the ex- 
tended landscape. At another angle, a few yards farther on is 
a small aparture through which Queen Mary is said to have 
witnessed the passage at arms between the knights in the tour- 
nament field. Under the castle are many dungeons, in one of 
which Rob Roy is said to have been confined. 

The castle consists of many buildings, erected at various 
times, in different styles of architecture, and for various pur- 
poses. The most interesting of them all to the traveler is the 
Douglas Room, or the Star Chamber. In this room James II 
stabbed the too powerful Earl of Douglas, at the close of a 



THE SCOTTISH LAKES AND STIRLING CASTLE. 21 

heated discussion, after which his attendants dragged the body 

into a closet and threw it from a window into the moat below. 

The skeleton of a man in armor, dug up under the window 

nearly 350 years after, tends to confirm the tradition. The 

body was buried where it was dug up in front of the door 

under the window. Scott, in his " Lady of the Lake," alludes 

to this. 

" Ye towers within whose circuit dread 
A Douglas by his sovereign bled." 

The closet of the Douglas Room has a stained glass window 
with the Douglas Arms and the motto — "Look Sickar." A 
door from this closet leads to an underground passage which 
has been explored a considerable distance. 

Among the curiosities in the Douglas Room are the com- 
munion table (dated 1500) used in the castle by John Knox, 
and the pulpit from the Chapel Royal, called Knox's Pulpit. 
They are both very shabby and dilapidated, and it will be 
necessary to have new ones soon. There are some chairs which 
belonged to James II. and James VI. which are more rickety and 
uncomfortable than when I s.at in them five years ago, and an 
oak model of the old Scottish Crown, which was such a poor 
fit for me that I can now better see the force of the saying — 
"Uneasy rests the head that wears a crown." There is also a 
collection of battle-axes, kettle drums, Lochaber axes from 
Bannockburn, a Royal tilting lance of James VI., and a col- 
lection of rusty and badly used up pikes. 

As we wander for hours through this venerable relic of the 
past, now shabby with neglect, and shorn of all its elegance, it 
seems to us only like the skeleton of that living past, the 
beauty and glory of which has departed, never to return. As 



22 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

we sit on the massive walls and look out upon the fields which 
have been stained with the blood of thousands, now waving 
with a rich and plentiful harvest, as we explore the massive 
dungeons formerly filled with the groans of tortured prisoners, 
now only echoing the footsteps of the curious traveler, we can 
but rejoice that those days of mis-named chivalry are passed, 
never, as we hope, to return, and that man has found something 
nobler and better than to clothe himself in plated steel and 
take by might that to which he has no right. 

The train for Edinburgh soon carried us out of sight of the 
lofty castle, which, as we sped away from it, seemed to stand 
like a grand monument to the heroic deeds which it had wit- 
nessed in the past. 



CHAPTER III. 



EDINBURGH. 



rpO English speaking travelers there is perhaps no place, ex- 
1 cept London, which contains so much of interest as Edin- 
burgh. As Glasgow is the commercial metropolis of Scotland, 
so Edinburgh is its artistic and literary center. She can refer 
with pride to such a list of men distinguished in the intellec- 
tual world as few cities can equal. Sir Walter Scott, Robert 
Burns, Dugald Stewart, Hume, Playfair, Professor Wilson, Dr. 
Chalmers, John Knox, and a long list of others, who are asso- 
ciated with the city, have given it a place in the world's regard 
which it can never lose. 



EDINBURGH. 23 

Like most cities of the old world, Edinburgh dates far into 
the past for its origin, and owes its location to its facilities as a 
stronghold. The high rock in the center of the city, upon 
which the castle is built, is so conspicuously a suitable place 
for a fortification, that we are not surprised to find that it was 
so used even before the Roman occupation of the island. For 
the last five hundred years there has been a castle on the rock 
with a town or city at its base. 

The present city is located on both sides of what was orig- 
inally a deep gorge, but which, in the course of time has been 
partly filled in, until now it is largely a pleasure ground known 
as Princes Street Gardens. The old city is on the castle side> 
while the new, which has mostly been built within the past 
hundred years, is on the opposite side of this garden. The 
three central points of interest in the city are the Castle, Calton 
Hill and Holyrood Palace and Cathedral. 

Probably a majority of travelers visit the old Castle first, 
both because of its own attractions and for the sake of the fine 
view of the city which is obtained from it. The Castle, which 
is reached by a long carnage way, has been added to by suc- 
cessive Sovereigns, until it now consists of a large number of 
buildings, the most of which are without attraction to the trav- 
eler. We notice with interest the apartments occupied by 
Queen Mary, and the small, irregularly- shaped bed room, 
scarcely nine feet long, in which her son, James VI. was born, 
and from a narrow window of which he was let down in a bas- 
ket, by a rope, to the base of the rock, nearly three hundred 
feet below, and taken secretly to Stirling to be baptized into 
the Catholic faith. Queen Margaret's Chapel, which is said to 
be the oldest edifice in the city, is a small building of the 



24 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

purely Norman style, and is perfectly preserved. It remains 
just as in her times, with the exception of the oak floor, which 
has been renewed. 

The crown room contains the jewels and regalia of the for- 
mer kings of Scotland, which, while they have been worn by 
many famous in history, have brought disaster upon them all. 
The armory, like the museum in this city, and in other cities of 
Scotland, contains relics associated with nearly all her historic 
heroes. For instance, the number of two-handed swords 
which the brave Robert Bruce had is astonishing to the average 
modern man — who has not even one small one — if we are to 
accept as true the records of the various museums. The 
Palaces, Parliament Houses and other splendid buildings 
which have been built upon this rock at various times, have 
either been destroyed or despoiled of their ornaments and 
changed into soldiers' barracks. 

On the walls of the Castle are many curious but obsolete 
and useless pieces of artillery, among them the huge " Mons 
Meg," a twenty-inch cannon, with an outer covering made of 
hoops driven on. It was made more than four hundred years 
ago, and burst firing a salute two hundred years ago. The 
fortress was once taken by a few men who with their heavy iron 
armor on, climbed up the steep side of the rock in the night 
and surprised the garrison. Of the crimes, romances and sie- 
ges of this famous old place, which have extended over a 
period of several hundred years, we have no time to speak, 
and indeed of themselves they would fill many volumes. From 
the different parts of the walls of the Castle the whole of the 
city and surrounding country for miles around can be plainly 
seen. 



EDINBURGH. 25 

At the foot of Canongate street, on the opposite side of the 
old city from the Castle is Holyrood Palace. Its many rooms 
are divided in much the usual way into picture galleries, state 
rooms and private apartments, which in general are without 
special interest except those which are associated with the 
tragic life of the beautiful Queen Mary. 

We are shown Lord Darnley's rooms, fitted up with great 
elegance for the time in which he lived, and containing his 
richly inlaid suit of armor and other relics. Adjoining are 
the apartments of Queen Mary. We are surprised at the 
small size of the supper room from which the luckless favorite, 
Rizzio, was dragged from the very feet of the Queen and mur- 
dered in the adjoining audience chamber. The guide attempt- 
ed to show us the blood stains upon the floor in front of the 
little stairs down which the conspirators escaped, but after 
striking a light and examining the floor on our knees, we gave 
it up and suggested to him that it would save travelers a great 
deal of trouble and disappointment if some fresh blood were 
placed upon the spot occasionally. It requires a great deal of 
" faith " to be able to see the " ineffaceable " blood stains after 
the fading and scrubbing of more than three hundred years. 

But to me the saddest of all were Mary's private rooms, 
which yet contain much of the furniture of her time and many 
memorials of her. On a little table by the window is her work 
box, with her needle work in it, as if she had laid it down but 
a little while ago. The bed in which she slept, which was 
once beautiful, in spite of care, is now rotting and dropping in 
pieces from the effects of time. The tapestries with which the 
walls are hung are faded but are in a better condition. All 



26 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

the surroundings of the place have been kept as nearly as pos- 
sible as she left them. 

As we linger in these rooms and in the adjoining cathedral, 
which are filled with memories of history, where Mary married 
Darnley, where she listened in tears to the harsh reproof of 
Knox, where her favorite was so foully murdered, and where 
she afterward married Bothwell, it seems to us like looking 
over the long lost illustrations of some volume of history. 

Connected with the Palace are the ruins of the old Abbey, 
which are even yet rich enough in ornament to show how 
magnificent it must have been in its prime. Within its now 
roofless and crumbling walls several of the minor kings and 
princes of the realm are buried. As we stand within this ven- 
erable ruin, with its walls so thick that its builders doubtless 
thought they would stand forever, and try to read the names 
and inscriptions on the time worn tablets, we cannot but think 
how vain are man's attempts to immortalize himself, and how 
soon even nature triumphs over all the works of man. 

On the opposite side of the gorge from Holyrood is Calton 
Hill, on which are the Old and New Observatories, Nelson's 
monument, which from its peculiar shape has been called " a 
Dutch spy glass," and the unfinished National Monument to 
Scotland's soldiers who fell at Waterloo. This was modeled 
after the Parthenon at Athens, but proving too expensive the 
plan was abandoned after the work was partly done and the 
incomplete building is now nicknamed " Scotland's Folly." 
Upon or near the hill are monuments to Dugald Stewart, Prof. 
Playfair, David Hume and the Burns monument with its 
memorial room and mementos of the poet. The High School 
is also located part way down the hill. 



EDINBURGH. 27 

There is no object more conspicuous as one looks over the 
city than the beautiful and costly Scott monument, which is on 
a commanding situation on one side of the Princes Street Gar- 
dens. It is two hundred feet high, in general appearance not 
unlike the spire of some great cathedral but is open at the 
base, covering a sitting figure of Scott, of heroic size. This 
and the Albert memorial at Kensington are the only monu- 
ments of their kind and they are most beautiful and appro- 
priate. The new city has wide streets, fine residences, and 
many open squares, which are generally ornamented with stat- 
ues of eminent men. 

On and near Canongate street which extends practically 
from the Castle to Holyrood, are most of the places of inter- 
est in the old city. Near the Palace at the foot of Canon- 
gate, formerly stood Girth Cross, a place of public execution, 
now marked by a circle in the pavement. Just beyond is 
White Horse Tavern, which figures largely in " Waverly " as 
a place of meeting for English officers. It was also a famous 
place of meeting for Scotch wits, and here Dr. Johnson and 
Bosvvell had many a witty encounter. It is now used as a 
stable and hay loft. In the Canongate Cemetery, which is a 
small enclosure crowded in between high buildings are the 
tombs of Adam Smith, Dugald Stewart, Dr. Burney, and the 
two Fergusons. 

We visit among other places John Knox's church and his 
house which joined it, a very quaint building projecting into 
the streets, with small windows high from the ground. It has 
been recently fitted up, and filled with mementos of the great 
divine, and is to be kept as a Knox museum. 

A Sabbath day in Edinburgh on a former visit found us at- 



28 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

tending service at Trow church, which is nearly two hundred 
and fifty years old, and the place where Annie Laurie was 
married. On High street, which is merely the continuation 
of Canongate formerly stood the massive old prison called the 
Tolbooth, built more than four hundred years ago. In the 
early part of this century it was demolished and its location 
marked by an immense heart made in the pavement. The 
prison long bore the quaint name of " The Heart of Mid Lo- 
than " and contributed some incidents and the name to one 
of Scott's most fascinating novels. 

St. Giles Church, at first a grand catholic cathedral with 
forty altars, with its beautiful coronal spire, was noticeable in 
early Protestant times for the preaching of John Knox, and 
for being the place where Jennie Geddes entered a vigorous 
protest against the course of the Dean of Edinburgh by throw- 
ing her stool at his head. 

The open space between Parliament House and St. Giles 
was formerly a cemetery, but gradually was encroached upon, 
the tomb stones broken and removed, and at the present time 
is a paved court. John Knox was among those buried in this 
cemetery and the supposed location of his tomb is marked by 
a small marble in the pavement with the letters J. K. cut in 
it, and this is all the monument Edinburgh has yet given to 
one of her greatest men. 

A visit to the courts of justice was of interest from the fact 
that everything was done with the utmost dignity and formal- 
ity. The Judges were clothed in long black robes, while 
they as well as all the advocates wore white curly wigs which 
covered the whole tops of their heads. 

Not far from here is the plain, three story house with bay 



EDINBURGH. 29 

front which Sir Walter Scott occupied for twenty-five years. 

From a tomb stone in the old Gray Friars church yard we 

copied the following inscription on a tomb dated 1667 : 

" Reader, John Milne who maketh the fourth John, 

And by descent from father unto son, 

Sixth Master Mason to a Royal Race 

Of seven successive kings, sleeps in this place." 

But time fails us to mention the many substantial public 
buildings, churches, museums, hospitals, etc., with which the 
city abounds. In the old quarter the traveler can but notice 
the crowded tenement houses some of them twelve stories 
high which literally swarm with frowzy women and dirty chil- 
dren. These were built when the city was shut in by its an- 
cient walls, and were once in the quarters of the nobility. 
But the pride of Edinburgh is in its great newspapers, its vast 
publishing houses and its justly claimed reputation as a liter- 
ary center. It delights to be known as the " Athens of Scot- 
land." 

The traveler can but think how much not only Edinburgh 
but all Scotland owes to the genius and labor of Sir Walter 
Scott, whose magic pen has immortalized scenes and events, 
which, but for him, would long ago have passed from public 
remembrance. As it is, thousands of travelers from all over 
the world come annually to visit the places known to them by 
his writings, and to make real the scenery he has so truthfully 
described. Although Edinburgh has built to his memory a 
splendid monument, he has built for himself a nobler in the 
great book establishments which are engaged all the time upon 
the various editions of his works. 

We can but admire the Scotchman for his industry, his in- 
telligence, his integrity, his love of liberty and country, and for 



30 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

all those sturdy traits which we naturally associate with his 
character. But if you deal with him remember that while he 
is honest to the bottom of his heart, one Scotchman is a match 
for any two Yankees, and that while he undoubtedly loves his 
American cousin and does not hesitate to tell him so, he will 
with a bow and a bland smile get the best of the bargain every 
time. 

As we see them struggling so hard for a living on their al- 
most barren hills, and think of the long, dark, snow bound 
winters through which they must pass, we feel like stretching 
out a hand to them and inviting them to come home with us 
to the enjoyment of better things. But without doubt their 
native heather-covered hills are as dear to them as our wide, 
fertile fields are to us, and if the best place in our grand west- 
ern prairie should be given them, they would soon long for the 
rugged sides and cloud-covered peaks of their native Ben 
Lomond. No matter what the surroundings under which we 
are born and brought up, nature seems to have wisely placed 
in every human heart a response to the expression of the poet 
" Be it ever so lowly, there's no place like home." 



CHAPTER IV. 
THE LAND OF SCOTT. 



THERE are few places in Europe which have been visited by 
[ more people or have been oftener or better described than 
Melrose Abbey. Hardly any one, of the slightest literary pre- 



THE LAND OF SCOTT. 3 1 

tentions, can be found who cannot recall a picture of it from 
some point of view. Probably there are not more than three 
or four ruins in all Europe which can compare with Melrose in 
interest. While it is a complete ruin, for it is unoccupied and 
without a roof even, it is yet in so perfect a state of preserva- 
tion as to show its wonderful architecture, and to give a good 
understanding of what its beauty must have been before it 
was wantonly and wickedly destroyed. It has the additional 
charm of having its ragged and crumbling walls so covered 
with ivy, that beautiful mantle of nature, that the harshness 
and desolation of the ordinary ruin are entirely wanting, and 
from the dead past seems to have sprung a joyous and living 
present. 

The structure whose ruins are so much admired, was com- 
menced in 1326, although a building devoted to some form of 
religious worship had occupied the same place or the imme- 
diate vicinity for eight hundred years previous. At first the 
Abbey was a very small building, costing no more than two 
thousand pounds of the money of that period. It was occu- 
pied by a community of Cistercian monks, who were enjoined 
by the rules of their order to constant and faithful labor. 
They therefore engaged in agriculture, in transcribing and 
illuminating manuscripts, and particularly in the construction 
and ornamentation of the grand buildings whose ruins are 
now found all over England and Scotland. There is no bet- 
ter picture of patience and perseverance, than these pains-tak- 
ing monks laboring faithfully year after year, with their own 
hands wielding the mallet and slowly cutting out those won- 
derful ornamental carvings of flowers, plants and curious and 
grotesque figures with which both the outside and inside of the 



32 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

church were covered. Much of this work yet remains, which 
even after the storms of hundreds of years have beaten upon 
it, shows the wonderful delicacy and beauty it originally had. 

Entering through an iron gate on the west side of the 
grounds we are at once in the midst of the ruins. On the 
right is a long corridor which is filled with curious old monu- 
ments, most of them so worn by time, that their inscriptions 
cannot be read. Passing partly through this and turning to 
the right, we enter the cemetery by a narrow doorway under 
the south window. 

The whole south front is the best preserved side of any of 
the building, and although weather worn and decaying is 
grand in its proportions. On one of the towers can yet be 
seen a part of the face of the old clock, with part of one of 
the hands yet remaining. The paint has long since gone from 
its face and the boards even are cracked and weather worn. 
The venerable and aged face, as it were just dropping into 
the tomb, needs no inscription of tentpus fugit to impress on 
us the fact that time flies. 

Passing around to the east side we see the east window, 
which is a marvel of beauty as it stands in the ruined wall. 
It is fifty-seven feet high by twenty-eight broad, and is divided 
into five parts by perpendicular mullions, and these were 
subdivided into a large number of smaller sections by delicate 
stone work, much of which remains until the present day. On 
the extreme right the massive corner is entirely covered with 
a wonderful growth of ivy, which completely obscures the 
stone work and falls in gracefully sweeping curves toward the 
ground. On the ruins at the left, grass and flowers are grow- 
ing, and on a corner of the wall a rose bush was in full bloom, 



THE LAND OF SCOTT. 33 

fifty feet from the ground, while birds were merrily singing 
and flying back and forth from their nests in the ivy and 
shrubbery on the ruined walls. 

From within, the ruins are equally striking and impressive. 
Although the sky is now the only covering of the Abbey, one 
cannot look down its vast length and see what must have been 
the majestic spring of its grand vaulted ceiling, without feeling 
a thrill of admiration as he catches, in imagination, a glimpse 
of what must have been the beauty of the building when it 
was complete. In accordance with the Romish custom of the 
period in which the Abbey was built, the church is in the 
form of a Latin Cross, with a length of two hundred and fifty- 
eight feet and an extreme width of one hundred and thirty- 
seven. 

Within the church are buried many men who were noted in 
their time. Here was interred Robert Bruce's heart, and here 
are the remains of the brave Douglas, the hero of Chevy 
Chase. Here is also the tomb of Scott's "Wizard of the 
North." Many of the inscriptions are very quaint, both in 
thought and expression. The brackets of a niche are sup- 
ported by the figures of two monks with flowing robes, and 
on the fillet of one and beneath the other are the following 
nearly obliterated inscriptions, in abbreviated Latin : "'Going 
whithersoever he would," and "When Jesus came the age of 
darkness ceased." Above the door of a stairway is a shield 
with a compass and this inscription : 

"As the compass goes straight around 
So does truth and loyalty, without doubt, 
Look to the end, quoth John Murvo." 

On a small stone in the form of four horse shoes fastened 



34 



TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 



together, is the inscription, " Pray for the soul of brother Peter, 
the treasurer." Whether " brother Peter " had discovered the 
modern process of " hypothecating " the funds of the treas- 
ury and was afterward smitten with death -bed repentance, we 
do not know, as this is all the record he has left us. 

The cemetery attached to the Abbey, which is now part 
of a sheep pasture, contains many half buried, half worn out 
monuments, and among them one tomb stone of as late date 
as 1858. On one of these ancient stones is this curious 
inscription : 

The earth goes on the earth 

Glistering like gold ; 
The earth goes to the earth 

Sooner than it wold ; 
The earth builds on the earth 

Castles and towers ; 
The earth says to the earth 

All shall be ours. 

Probably there is not one traveler in a thousand who is able 
to take Sir Walter Scott's advice to visit Melrose " by the pale 
moonlight," and indeed it is stated that he never made such 
a visit himself, but it can be readily seen that under the 
favoring light of a mid-summer moon the ruins would have a 
peculiar beauty, and call forth all the romantic and poetical 
in a man's nature. Melrose Abbey is one of those places 
where one would like to spend days instead of a few hours, 
and drink the inspiration which comes from its contemplation. 
Examine it as often as you please or return to it after an 
absence of years, and you will always find some new beauty 

in it. 

" I do love these ancient ruins ; 

We never tread upon them but we set 

Our foot upon some reverend history ; 



THE LAND OF SCOTT. 35 

And questionless, here in these open courts, 

Which now lie naked to the injuries 

Of stormy weather, some men lie interred 

Who loved the Church so well, and gave so largely to it. 

That they thought it should have canopied their bones 

Forever ; but all things have an end, 

Churches and cities, that have diseases like to men, 

Must have like death that we have." 

It is customary for us to look upon the time from the eighth 
to the thirteenth century as the "dark ages," and we think of 
the people of that time as but half civilized and engaged only 
in war and plunder, but when we see the ruins of the grand 
cathedrals and castles scattered all over Europe, we can but 
respect the rude energy of those ages, which spent itself partly 
in building and decorating these wonderful monuments of 
their industry. The more we see of the world and what has 
been done by those who have lived before us, the less conceit 
we have for our time, and the more respect for those who have 
lived hundreds of years before us. 

From Melrose a drive of three or four miles along a pleasant 
English road bordered with hedges, brings us to Abbotsford, 
the home of Sir Walter Scott. Its castle-like towers do not 
come in sight until we are close to it, as the building is situat- 
ed on low ground. The structure is a curious compound of 
castle and residence, and was built, or at least rebuilt to its 
owner's wishes. There are four or five rooms to which the 
public are admitted at twenty-five cents per person. Indeed 
it is as bad in Europe as at Niagara falls — you cannot get a 
sight of anything worth seeing without paying some one a fee. 

We were first shown the library, a room at least fifty feet 
long, which contains books on all sides from floor to ceiling, 
some twenty thousand volumes in all. Here is the large leath- 



36 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

er covered arm chair in which Sir Walter sat and the plain 
table at which he wrote. Joining this is a little study, with 
one small window, just large enough to comfortably hold a 
chair and table. In this room the great novelist did much of 
his hardest work. Connected with the library is the reception 
room which contains many portraits and curiosities presented 
to him. 

Next to this is a room used as an armory, which contains a 
fine collection of weapons. Among the notable things in the 
armory we noticed Rob Roy's gun, marked with his initials ; 
Roman spears ; Montrose's sword ; a pair of pistols taken 
from Napoleon's carriage at Waterloo ; the armor of one of 
the kings of Scotland ; the rusty keys of the old Tolbooth at 
Edinburgh, and a fine collection of modern and middle age 
arms from all over the world. 

The entrance hall is also filled with curiosities. Here are 
several full suits of armor with lances in their iron hands, as 
if only waiting for the spirits of their former occupants to re- 
turn. Here are also battle axes, maces, huge two-handed 
swords, spears, cross bows, and mementos from many of the 
fierce and bloody battles with which Scotland's history is filled. 
One of the rooms has a case containing the suit of clothes 
Scott wore at his death, the plaid trowsers, " Brother Jon- 
athan " striped vest, the large shoes, the broad skirted green 
coat and his stout walking stick. 

Among the pictures in the various rooms are " Beardie," 
one of Sir Walter's ancestors who let his beard grow for years 
untrimmed to show his sympathy for the dethroned Stuarts ; 
a head of Mary, Queen of Scotland, said to have been sketched 
a few hours after her death by an artist who, in the assumed 



THE LAND OF SCOTT. 37 

character of an embalmer's assistant, gained admission to the 
room where the body was ; a grim and stern Cromwell, and 
many others, the greater part family portraits. One room of 
curiosities consists almost entirely of presents made him by 
distinguished people. Among these a silver cup given him by 
Lord Byron is of special interest. The views from the rooms, 
particularly the library, are fine but not extended. 

The exterior of the house is decorated with several memo- 
rial slabs from places of historic interest. The grounds are 
prettily laid out and are ornamented with statuary. A fine 
effigy of Scott's favorite dog Maida is particularly noticeable. 
In front of the old part of the house is the stone foundation of 
the old cross at Edinburgh which in former times on festal oc- 
casions flowed wine instead of water. 

Language can hardly portray our thoughts as we lingered 
in these rooms so familiar to the great novelist whom we all 
admire. When we saw the books he read, the place where he 
studied and wrote, the mementos and weapons which he seem- 
ed to weave into his wonderful stories, it seemed as if we had 
been into the workshop of Vulcan and seen the material of 
which Jove's thunderbolts were forged. It brought home to 
us with more force than ever, that the true genius to which 
the world owes so much is not the spasmodic offcastings of 
some inspired mind, but what Dickens claimed as the sum of 
his genius — the genius for hard work. 

With this visit to Melrose and Abbotsford, and with our 
love for the novelist greatly increased, we bid adieu for the 
present to Scotland. 
3 



38 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

CHAPTER V. 

LONDON. 

THE ride from Edinburgh to London, a distance of four 
hundred miles, is usually made in ten hours by the fastest 
trains, and for the most part is through a country which would 
delight our best farmers. The careful cultivation and abund- 
ant crops remind us of the land near our cities, and are in- 
dicative of a country long under subjection to man. Oats and 
wheat with an occasional field of barley are the usual grains. 
Root crops are largely in excess of what we raise in America, 
and sheep seem to us unusually numerous and fine. 

As we near London the country becomes an almost contin- 
uous village filled with manufactories, and from ten to thirty 
tall chimneys can generally be seen at once. At the time of 
my former visit, five years ago, these were all in full operation, 
but at present at least half of them are not running, for hard 
times are felt in England as well as in America. Through 
these villages and the thickly settled suburbs we glide almost 
imperceptibly into the city itself, and end our journey at the 
Midland Depot, the largest and most expensive railroad depot 
in the world, which, with the hotel built as a part of it, cost 
ten million dollars. 

London is a world in herself. A city of four million inhab- 
itants, situated in a broad plain, upon both sides of a noble 
river, she has natural advantages which few places possess. 
So vast is she that one might walk her streets constantly for a 
month without retracing his steps. Everything made any- 
where in the world can be found in London, while people 



LONDON. 39 

from all countries and nations are living within her limits, and 
there is nothing which art or science can produce which is not 
represented here. The very greatness of the city and the 
multitude of things of interest to be seen, fairly bewilder the 
traveler, so that, unless one has months at his disposal, at 
best it can be but a choice of a few places to be visited and a 
lingering regret that so much must be left unseen. 

After a ride through some of the more celebrated streets to 
gain a general idea of the city, we commence our examination 
of things of particular interest with a large dingy looking stone 
building, blackened with centuries of London smoke, which 
stands in one of the most busy parts of the city, itself filling an 
entire square. As we approach St. Paul's Cathedral and enter 
it, we are impressed particularly with its size and massiveness, 
and indeed it is the largest Protestant Cathedral in the world. 
The interior is very plain, strikingly so compared with Cath- 
olic cathedrals, its decorations consisting almost entirely of 
monuments and memorial tablets. Of these we may mention 
those of Howard the philanthropist, Turner the painter, Sir 
John Moore, Sir Christopher Wren, Benjamin West and Sir 
Joshua Reynolds. In the crypt are the remains of the Duke 
of Wellington and the paraphernalia of his funeral, including 
the funeral car made of captured cannon and weighing many 
tons. Near by is the monument of Lord Nelson, under which 
his body lies. 

People who are enthusiastic and foolish enough next climb 
more than six hundred steps to the ball, where they are gener- 
ally rewarded with a magnificent view of London smoke and 
fog extending as much as five hundred feet in every direction ; 
but although they can see but little, they have the consolation 



40 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

of knowing that they are nearly three hundred and fifty feet 
above the pavement. 

We recall with pleasure a Sabbath service in the Cathedral 
conducted by that prince of pulpit orators, Canon Lyddon. 
The thoroughfare around the Cathedral is known as St. Paul's 
Churchyard, the longer side, a carriage-way, called the Bow, 
the shorter, a foot-passage, called the String. Between the 
Churchyard and Newgate street is Paternoster-row, the great 
center of the book trade. Here are the offices of Thomas 
Nelson &: Son, and Blackwood's Magazine; and in this vicinity 
most of Shakespeare's plays were originally published. This 
locality has a special interest to Americans from the fact that 
the first book ever written on American soil was published at 
the "Grey-hound in Paul's Churchyard, 1608." Its author 
was no less a personage than Captain John Smith, of the colony 
of Virginia. Just off from this is the quiet little nook called 
Amen Corner. 

Very near St. Paul's are the Old Bailey and Newgate, im- 
mortalized by the genius of Dickens. Going up Cheapside, 
one of the chief retail streets of London, we pass the great 
building known as the General Post Office, while a little far- 
ther up is King street, which brings us to Guild-hall, where 
are the ancient colossal wooden figures, Gog and Magog. 
Continuing up Cheapside we soon come to the open space in 
front of the Royal Exchange, which is emphatically the busi- 
ness center of London, as Charing Cross is the center of its 
fashion. I doubt if there is a spot in the world through which 
there is more travel by foot and omnibus than this, as eight 
main thoroughfares pour into it their ceaseless traffic. It is 
well worth a half-hour of one's time to stand on a corner here, 



LONDON. 41 

and also at the center of London Bridge, and see the unend- 
ing stream of human beings and omnibuses which flows by. 
On one side of the Exchange is the Bank of England, and on 
the other the Mansion House. 

The Bank of England covers eight acres of ground, has no 
outside windows, is a fortress which has withstood several 
sieges, has a capital of $70,000,000, and employs nearly one 
thousand clerks. Obtaining permission to visit the vaults, we 
see gold in heaps as plenty as iron in a blacksmith shop. We 
look over a railing into a court and see two men with a pulley 
lifting bags of gold into a wagon, and in one of the many rooms 
a wonderful little machine is at work, which weighs 35,000 
gold pieces per day, and picks out every one which does not 
come up to the required weight. 

In the Royal Exchange are some of the oldest insurance 
companies in the world, and also the offices of the celebrated 
" Lloyds," the ship insurers, whose " List " is authority every- 
where in ship matters. Near the Exchange is a fine statue of 
George Peabody, the distinguished American merchant. On 
the opposite side of the open space is the Mansion House, the 
official residence of the Lord Mayor of London, and where, at 
his princely entertainments the highest nobles in the land can 
be found. 

Not far from here is the Old Tower, which in former times 
was a fortress and prison, but is now used as a military curi- 
osity shop and armory. It contains also the royal jewels, 
valued at about $15,000,000. It takes the best part of a day 
to go through the tower, with the gorgeously dressed official 
guides. It is especially interesting as the prison and place of 
execution of hundreds of England's noblest men and women. 



42 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

Lady Jane Grey, Anne Boleyn, Raleigh, and many princes of 
England's royal families were put to death on Tower Hill. 
The Horse Armory, which is one of the finest known collec- 
tions of ancient armory, contains rich suits displayed on eques- 
trian statues, and arranged in chronological order, many of 
them the very armor worn by the kings whose reign they rep- 
resent. In the armory are also breech-loading guns, revolvers, 
thumb-screws, beheading blocks and executioners' axes, all 
from early times, and curious ancient and modern weapons 
from all parts of the world. Within the walls of the Old 
Tower there has been enacted enough of romance and tragedy 
to furnish material for volumes. 

Opposite the Tower is the entrance to the tunnel under the 
Thames, a dark, damp, circular iron hole seven feet in diame- 
ter, always to be avoided if possible. Walking along the bank 
of the river we soon come to the commodious Custom House 
buildings, and just beyond to Billingsgate fish-market, so graph- 
ically and truthfully described by Dickens. It is well worth 
one's time to visit it from 5 to 8 o'clock in the morning, and 
see and hear the indiscriminate mixture of fish, profanity, old 
women and slang. Fifteen minutes of it one summer's morn- 
ing was all we wanted. 

Just across the street, in one of the cheap temperance res- 
taurants, of which there are many in London, we had a great 
bowl of coffee and a sandwich which would make a meal for 
a small family, for two pence. Not far from here is the monu- 
ment, two hundred feet high, built on the spot where the great 
fire of 1666 commenced. Near Billingsgate is the celebrated 
London Bridge, which cost $10,000,000, and is probably the 
most crowded bridge in the world, as it is estimated that eight 



LONDON. 43 

thousand persons and nine hundred vehicles cross it per hour 
during the middle of the day. 

Taking one of the swift Thames steamers at London Bridge, 
we go rapidly along the river under the many fine bridges 
which span it, past Cleopatra's needle, which is just assuming 
an upright position on the embankment, and land at West- 
minster Bridge, which is larger and finer than London Bridge, 
and are only a few yards from Westminster Hall and the 
Houses of Parliament. The Hall contains one of the largest 
rooms in Europe under one roof, and several apartments in 
which we found the high courts in session, while in the House 
of Lords we also found a committee of that body sitting as a 
Supreme Court. On a former visit we had the pleasure of 
attending a session of the famous Tichborne trial, which was 
held in one of these courts. 

The Parliament House joins Westminster Hall, and is a 
beautiful and substantial structure. The chambers of the 
Commons and the Lords are at opposite ends of a fine hall, 
and are similar, with the exception that the House of Lords is 
elegantly furnished, while the, Commons has none of the con- 
veniences for the use of members lo which we are accustomed 
in this country, not even places for writing being provided at 
the long benches on which the members sit. 

Near this is Westminster Abbey, a not very noticeable struc- 
ture, but yet one of the most interesting buildings in Europe, 
both on account of its antiquity and the illustrious names 
associated with it. The Abbey was founded by King Sebert, 
the Saxon, in 616, and has been used especially as a burial 
place of English Kings and distinguished men and women. 
It would take many pages of this volume to simply enumerate 



44 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

those who have been honored with burial here, and we can 
only say that within its walls lie thirteen English Sovereigns 
and fourteen Queens, covering a historic period of more 
than twelve hundred years. In the Poet's Corner are the 
greater part of England's well known literary names, from 
Chaucer to Charles Dickens, whose tablet is in the pavement. 

In another part of the building, happening to look on the 
pavement by our feet, we saw cut in small letters, "O Rare Ben 
Johnson," and this is all the monument and epitaph this great 
writer has or needs. There is no place on the earth which 
contains the remains of so many distinguished men, and few 
places where an American of education can spend a day with 
greater interest. We had the good fortune to hear Canon 
Farrar, the distinguished incumbent of the Abbey, as he took 
a party of friends through the building, showing them the 
things of greatest interest. 

Taking the cars on the Metropolitan or underground rail- 
way, which makes the entire circuit of the city, a few minutes 
brings us to the South Kensington Museum and the Albert 
Memorial monument, at one. corner of Hyde Park. The 
Museum, while it is not so large as the British, is yet a fine 
one, and is scientifically arranged. It has lately become dis- 
tinguished for the Art School connected with it. What inter- 
ested me most at my last visit was Dr. Schliemann's collection 
of Trojan antiquities, which has been on exhibition here since 
last Christinas. 

In a small building adjoining is a museum of the Patent 
Office, containing among other things, " Puffing Billy," the 
first railroad engine ever made, used from 1813 to 1862; and 
also the " Rocket," the next oldest. There is here also the 



LONDON. 45 

old clock of Gastonbury Abbey, hammered out of wrought 
iron by a monk and set up in 1325. It is running yet and has 
not been repaired except to supply two or three wheels which 
were lost. Besides the hour of the day it keeps several other 
records. One of the first Cornish engines used in the mines 
is in this collection. The place though small and dingy has 
many things of interest to those who care for mechanical curi- 
osities. 

The memorial erected to Prince Albert by Queen Victoria 
is very fine and in undisputed taste, excepting the gigantic 
gilt statue of the Prince. As a whole the monument has a 
general resemblance to the Scott monument in Edinburg. 

We ride back toward the center of the city for more than a 
mile along Hyde Park, one of the many breathing places 
which London is fortunate in possessing, by Buckingham Pal- 
ace gardens and the Palace itself, the city residence of the 
Queen of England, a large but by no means striking building, 
down the Mall beside the beautiful St. James Park to Charing 
Cross, the center of West End, the fashionable part of London. 
Near here are many of the finest residences in the city, and 
most of the aristocratic club houses. 

At Charing Cross in Trafalger Square, is a magnificent 
monument to Lord Nelson, and along one side of the Square 
is the National Art Gallery. From Charing Cross the street 
is called the Strand, and is one of the most prominent thor- 
oughfares in the great city. At Temple Bar, which was for- 
merly a conspicuous landmark, and could be seen at a long 
distance from either side, the name changes again to Fleet 
street. The Bar was a rude arch thrown across the street 
where, in early times stood the posts or bars which maked the 



46 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

boundary between London and Westminster. It was removed 
about two years ago, and we miss its familiar arch and the 
rusty iron hooks on which only a hundred years ago the heads 
of criminals were exposed. 

Just as we enter Fleet street on the right is a former palace 
of Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey, which is now a hair cut- 
ting establishment. Fleet street was formerly a resort of lit- 
erary men. Ben Jonson, Chatterton, Dryden, Milton, Gold- 
smith, and a host of others are associated with this historic 
street. The well known Mr. *' Punch " also has his office 
here. At the foot of Ludgate Hill, the street again changes 
its name to Ludgate Circus, which extends to St. Paul's Ca- 
thedral, the place where we commenced our sight seeing. 

If we now take a seat with the driver of an omnibus on 
Cheapside we can ride through Newgate, Holborn and Oxford 
streets, (the same unbroken street but with different names) 
a distance of many miles back to Kensington, and will have 
seen the entire length of the city, in a course, in general, par- 
allel to that taken from Kensington to St. Paul's. On Oxford 
street we are near the British Museum, about which we can 
only say here that it is the largest and best museum in the 
world and is worthy all the time one can give it, if it be a 
month. It was recently proposed to issue a catalogue of the 
Museum, but the plan was finally abandoned because to simply 
name the different things in the collection would make several 
books as large as Webster's Unabridged. 

Time permits mention of only a few of the most prominent 
places, which we had the pleasure of visiting, and allows no 
mention of the many places of interest which are within an 
hour's ride of the city. To any one born to the English Ian- 



BELGIUM. 47 

guage there is no city in the world equal to London, for inter- 
est or improvement, and for weeks the traveler can wander 
through it familiarizing himself with places, persons and events 
which have been prominent in our common English history 
for the past thousand years. Although London is dingy and 
smoky, often obscured by dense fog, and rains are so sudden 
and frequent that it seems as if the inhabitants are born with 
umbrellas under their arms, she is a city to be loved by every 
American traveler, and to be left with regret. 



CHAPTER VI. 
BELGIUM.- 



THE horrors of the passage from England to the continent 
1 have never been over estimated. These countless discom- 
forts arise from the fact that the steamers are small and incon- 
venient, and during the summer season generally carry two or 
three times as many people as they can accommodate. The 
following notice copied from a large poster on the deck of 
one of the steamers on which we made the passage this year, 
shows the general style of management of the channel steam- 
ers : " This quarter deck contains 1170 square feet and is 
certified for 130 first class passengers when not occupied by 
cattle, animals, cargo or other encumbrance." This is prac- 
tically the nearest approach to the celebrated " Pig in the 
Parlor " theory I have ever seen. 



48 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

The route from London to Flushing, in Holland, is pleasant- 
er now than at our passage five years ago, for new and better 
steamers ply between the places. This year, however, there 
has been so much more travel than usual that even the new 
boats are over crowded. The passage is made in the night, 
and in the early morning the low shores of Holland are in 
sight, and two hours later our steamer is between the embank- 
ments of the Scheldt. We can just see the church spires and 
chimneys of houses over the dykes, which indicates that 
the river level is a dozen feet above the streets of the city. 
Taking cars for Antwerp we at once realize that we are in a 
foreign country. 

The strange gutteral Dutch and old Flemish which seem 
to fill the air around us, the dykes extending away as far as 
the eye can reach, the squatty, tile-covered houses, the ditches 
and rows of trees which take the place of fences, the little 
patches of different kinds of grain which seem to fly by as the 
train moves along, and most of all the short, broad, big-footed 
women wearing wooden shoes, and doing most of the work in 
the fields, all are so different from what we see at home that 
the traveler cannot but be greatly interested. The crops 
grown are largely wheat, barley and potatoes. No cattle are 
in sight pasturing, as land here is too valuable. Most of the 
amimal labor is done by cows or donkeys. Careful cultivation 
and economy of land is especially noticeable. No spot large 
enough to raise a hill of potatoes even is uncultivated, and 
grass is harvested almost up to the track of the railroad. 

As we near Antwerp the dykes are not so high and finally 
nearly disappear and there is occasionally a low hill. We at 
length pass through heavy fortifications and enter Antwerp, 



BELGIUM. 49 

which although it has experienced the many vicissitudes of a 
varied fortune is now on the whole the most important city of 
Belgium. In the sixteenth century it was the most wealthy 
and prosperous city on the continent, surpassing even Venice. 
It received its death blow, commercially, in the wars with 
Spain. 

Driving from the depot to our hotel we see strange things 
on every side of us. The great draft horses which we pass, 
(celebrated the world over) have immense collars running up 
to a point two feet above the horses' shoulders while the traces 
are generally made of ropes. Small loads are drawn by cows, 
donkeys or dogs and frequently by men and women. A team 
of five dogs drew a cart of wood which would be called by an 
American farmer a good load for one horse. Most of the 
streets, particularly of the old city, are narrow and winding. 
The upper stories of the houses frequently project over the 
lower, and at the corners of the streets there are often little 
shrines built into the second stories of the houses. 

Artistically, Antwerp is famous as the birthplace and home 
of the artist Van Dyck, as one of the several places in which 
it is claimed Rubens was born, and as the center of the cele- 
brated Flemish School of Art, which in the sixteenth and sev- 
enteenth centuries was of world wide repute. Like every 
continental city of the least pretentions, Antwerp has a cathe- 
dral dating back for its foundation from four hundred to 
eight hundred years ago, a good assortment of churches, which 
the tourist is compelled to visit or be considered a lunatic, and 
museums and so-called art galleries sufficient to worry the 
life out of the average man if he consents to see them all. 
The cathedral contains Rubens' far-famed masterpiece, the 



5<D TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

Descent from the Cross, which ranks among the first three or 
four paintings in the world. 

The museum, the finest art gallery in Belgium, contains six 
hundred pictures a number of them by Rubens and Van Dyck. 
Nearly all the paintings are ancient and have been mostly 
taken from the suppressed monasteries. If the traveler gen- 
erously gives a day to the Museum he will go through at the 
rate of five pictures in three minutes, which will just about 
give him time to find the name in the catalogue and the pic- 
ture on the wall, and leave him no time to look at the painting. 

A chime of eighty-two bells in the tower of the Cathedral 
almost without interruption from morning to night grinds out 
the most solemn and long-winded Dutch tunes. In the Church 
of St. James there is some of the finest and most intricate 
work ever executed in marble. 

Within the past forty years the old fortifications of the city 
have been removed and a fine boulevard, with some of the 
way three carriage drives and four foot ways, has been made 
in its place. The same thing has been done in Brussels, 
Vienna, Paris and many smaller cities of Europe. 

One morning a friend and myself arose early and went to 
the market, which, like those in most continental cities, was 
held in the center of an open square. Here shortly after day- 
light country people come with vegetables for sale, which they 
place on the pavement. There were in the market, carrots, 
cabbages, peas, very large gooseberries, strawberries, pears, 
fine apricots, potatoes, currants, large quantities of beautiful 
black and red cherries, and two or three vegetables which 
were new to me. 

The greater part of those who kept the market as well as 



BELGIUM. 51 

those who came to buy were women, the most of whom were 
coarsely and plainly dressed, and showed in their every look 
and motion the pernicious effects of too much heavy work. 
For ten cents we bought a hat full of cherries, and were given 
a cabbage leaf as large as a napkin in which to do them up. 
We had an occasional sight of those wonderful hats of which 
we have all seen pictures, which look like — well anything — say 
a Dutch lugger after she has been through a hurricane. We 
also saw one woman with the ancient Flemish head ornaments, 
consisting of a broad gold band about her forehead, very long 
ear rings which hung down resting on her shoulders, and curi- 
ous gold spiral springs in her hair, on that part of her head 
where, in my boyhood it was fashionable for young ladies to 
plaster down the fascinating spit beau-catcher. 

Brussels is only twenty-seven miles from Antwerp, and yet, 
contrary to what one would expect, they are each cities of nearly 
200,000 inhabitants. In reaching Brussels we have to pass 
through the little town of Vilvorde, where William Tyndale, 
one of the celebrated translators of the Bible, suffered martyr- 
dom, and through Malines, of which the old monks said in 
language more terse than complementary : Gaudet Mechlinia 
stultis, " Malines rejoices in fools." This reputation arose 
from the story that the citizens once saw the moon shining 
brightly through their tower, and mistaking it for a conflagra- 
tion the whole city turned out with their engines to extinguish 
the fire. 

Brussels is a more beautiful city than Antwerp, and is often 
called a miniature Paris. It also has an added importance as 
being the capital of Belgium. The building in which the two 
houses of government hold their annual session is one of the 



52 



TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 



richest and most tasty public buildings I have ever seen. No 
private house could be better cared for or kept in nicer order. 
Imagine, if you can, ye professional American law manufac- 
turers, a committee room with a heavy velvet carpet, and not a 
spittoon in sight, or a stain of tobacco on the floor. It was 
our good fortune five years ago to attend a meeting of the Bel- 
gium Chamber of Deputies, or as we would call it, House of 
Representatives. The members seemed to be nearly all talk- 
ing at the same time, and there were at least eight hundred 
French words in the air every minute, to say nothing of the 
countless gestures and contortions which each of the honor- 
able members contributed to the occasion. • 

The public buildings, churches, art galleries, museums, 
squares, and lace factories of Brussels are all of interest to 
the traveler, nor will he forget to pay a visit to the battle-field 
of Waterloo, only nine and a half miles distant. 

Of the art galleries, one, the Wiertz Museum, is worthy of 
special mention, both from the merits of the paintings and 
from the fact that it is made up entirely of the work of the one 
man whose name it bears. 

From Brussels to Cologne, on the Rhine, is nearly an all- 
day's ride, passing through Liege, famous for its University 
with eight hundred students, and as the place where all the 
arms of the Belgium Government are manufactured, and 
through Aix-la-Chapelle, the favorite residence of the great 
Emperor Charlemagne. Our route takes us across some of 
the finest agricultural .districts of Europe, and at times for 
miles we pass through unbroken fields of grain. For the first 
time we see the distinctive features of German farm-life — the 
inhabitants living in villages about three miles apart, and going 



UP THE RHINE. 



53 



out every morning to work in the fields. The social German 
cannot endure the solitary monotony of the American way of 
living on a farm. 

May not the gradual adoption of this plan in our country go 
far towards solving the question so frequently and earnestly 
asked — " How can the boys be kept on the farm ?" 

Many of these villages have walls about them, relics of the 
feudal times, when no man's property was safe unless he had a 
fort built around it. 



CHAPTER VII. 
UP THE RHINE. 



THE most interesting thing about Cologne is its magnificent 
Gothic Cathedral, whose foundation was laid more than six 
hundred years ago, and the building is not yet completed. 
Parts of it have been used at various times during several 
hundred years for church purposes, and the entire structure 
was converted by Napoleon I. into a hay magazine. In 1842 
the work of restoring and completing the grand edifice was 
commenced by government,and since then more than $3, 500,000 
have been expended in this way. At the present time there 
are about four hundred men employed, and it is thought the 
building will be completed within two years. The intended 
height of the main tower is five hundred and eleven feet, which 
will be the loftiest known work of man. A bell weighing twen- 



54 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

ty-five tons has been recently cast for the Cathedral from can- 
non captured from the French in the last war. The stained 
glass windows and various interior decorations are fine and 
worth the careful attention of the tourist. 

The church of St. Ursula is said to contain the bones of the 
eleven thousand virgin attendants of St. Ursula, who were 
slaughtered by the Huns in the year 450, and buried here. A 
large part of the interior walls of the church is ornamented 
with boxes of these bones. There are several hundred bush- 
els of them in all, and a more ghastly sight can scarcely be 
imagined. The treasury of the church contains memorials of 
the Saint, her sarcophagus, her arm and skull, a gold ring 
which she wore, and the arrow with which she was killed. 
Among other sacred relics we are shown an alabaster jar from 
the marriage supper at Cana, some of the bones of St. Stephen, 
and two thorns from our Savior's crown. 

On our former visit we spent a Sabbath in the city, and had 
a good illustration of the way it is observed in Catholic Ger- 
man cities. Walking through one of the principal streets, we 
found most of the shops open, and all kinds of business going 
on much as usual. Soon there came along a Jesuit procession 
of several hundred men, women and children, in holiday attire 
with banners, lighted candles and a brass band. The shops 
were closed temporarily, oak branches scattered in the street, 
innumerable little flags hung out, images brought to sight, little 
shrines lighted, and flowers cast under the feet of the priests 
who were heading the procession. As soon as it was past busi- 
ness went on as before. There were formal services in the 
cathedral and the many churches. In the afternoon and even- 
ing there were music, dancing and drinking in a large beer 



UP THE RHINE. 55 

garden connected with our hotel on the bank of the river. 
The revelry, including the playing of a large band, was kept 
up until nearly midnight, when the entertainment ended with 
a fine display of fireworks. The Sabbath here, as generally on 
the Continent, is a great holiday. 

Probably not one traveler in a hundred escapes the impor- 
tunities of some of the dozen or more Farinas, who each claim 
to be the only descendant of the original John Farina, who 
first manufactured the Eau de Cologne. We had the good for- 
tune to ^et two or three of them pulling hair over the impor- 
tant question of which was the Farina, and then escaping 
while the battle was raging fiercest. The city is so dirty and 
has sc many decided and distinct smells, that we could not but 
think that they had a good home market for all the "Cologne" 
which they are likely to manufacture for some time to come. 
The beauties of the city of Cologne must be taken in through 
any of the senses rather than that of smelling. 

Leaving Cologne by steamer, there is little of interest until 
we reach the University town of Bonn, which was one of the 
first fortresses of the Romans on the Rhine, and was frequently 
mentioned by Tacitus. The University buildings, like those 
of all the great educational institutions of Germany, are insig- 
nificant and unworthy a visit, unless the traveler learns from it 
that a great University does not consist in fine buildings but 
in distinguished professors. 

A little above Bonn we come to the Seven Mountains, of 
which the most noted, Drachenfels, or Dragon's Rock, is men- 
tioned by Byron, as 

" The castled crag of Drachenfels, 
P^rowns o'er the wide and winding Rhine." 



56 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

From a ruined castle on its summit there is one of the finest 
and most extended views on the whole Rhine. In the side of 
the mountain toward the river can be seen the mouth of the 
cave in which there once live'd a terrible dragon, who ate 
half a dozen men for his dinner every day, and was worshiped 
by the idolators who lived in the vicinity. But a beautiful 
captive Christian maiden was once given to him as a part of 
his daily rations, who held the cross toward the monster as he 
opened his mouth to receive her, which so terrified him that 
he sprang into the Rhine and was never, seen more. In proof 
of the story you can see with your own v eyes, as you sail along 
the river, the entrance to the cavern in which the monster 
lived. 

Just beyond, on the other side of the river, are the mountain 
and ruined arch of Rolandseck castle, opposite the island of 
Nonnenwerth, which was built by the brave Knight Roland 
on his return from the Crusades, in order that he might over- 
look the convent on the island in which his lady love had 
taken refuge, when she heard the rumor of his death. This 
beautiful legend of his knightly devotion is the subject of one 
of Schiller's finest ballads, " The Knight of Toggenburg." 

At Linz are extensive quarries of basalt, which is here 
found in hexagonal columns of from three to ten inches in 
diameter. These columns are used largely in the construction 
of dykes in Holland. Neuwied received the Moravians after 
their expulsion from Moravia during the thirty year's war, and 
from this center they have spread over the whole world. 

In half an hour more we are at the beautifully situated city 
of Coblentz, at the junction of the Rhine and Moselle. On 
the opposite side of the river is the Gibraltar of the Rhine, 



UP THE RHINE. 57 

the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein, which is practically invulner- 
able. It can be defended by 500 men and can accommodate 
100,000, and its ^magazines will contain provisions for 8,000 
soldiers for ten years. Twelve miles from Coblentz is Ems, 
the favorite resort of the German Emperor, where, in 1870, 
King William brought on the French war by his sharp reply to 
an obtrusive French embassador. Coblentz was the birth 
place of the distinguished Austrian Prime Minister, Prince 
Metternich. From Coblentz to Bingen, a distance of thirty- 
seven miles, is the finest scenery on the Rhine. 

Three miles above Coblentz is the castle of Stolzenfels, on a 
precipitous rock rising three hundred feet above the river. 
As early as 1200 it was a famous castle, but two hundred 
years ago it was destroyed by the French and left in ruins 
until within fifty years, when it was presented to the present 
Emperor William, by whom it was rebuilt. Queen Victoria 
was entertained here in 1845. It commands one of the finest 
views on the Rhine. On our right towers the almost conical 
mountain on which the castle of Marksburg is perched, 485 
feet above the Rhine, the only middle age fortress on the 
river which has escaped destruction. 

Scattered through Boppard are a number of those strange 
old German houses with the frames on the outside of the 
buildings. This part of the Rhine is much frequented by 
artis'ts in search of the quaint and picturesque. Like several 
other places on the Rhine in early times it boasted a Lodge 
of the Knights Templar, whose heroes are mentioned in rec- 
ords of the Crusades. 

Just above, on the opposite side of the river, crowning adja- 
cent spurs of the same mountain, are the ruins of two castles, 



58 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

called The Brothers. These were occupied by two brothers 
who loved the same maiden. Heinrich generously went to 
the Crusades and left the prize to Conrad, who finally growing 
weary of her, also went to the Crusades, and suddenly re- 
turned with a Grecian bride. This broke the heart of the 
deserted wife, who shut herself up in her castle and refused 
to see any one. Late one evening a strange knight claimed 
the hospitality of the castle. He proved to be Heinrich, and 
at once resolved to avenge her wrongs. He challenged Con- 
rad to single combat, but just as with battle axes raised on 
high they were about to chop each other into sausage meat, the 
sad lady interposed and insisted on a reconciliation, to which 
they reluctantly consented, while as was usually the case the 
injured lady retired to a convent which was always conveni- 
ently near. The Greek bride of Conrad very properly soon de- 
serted the rascal and he finally became reconciled to his broth- 
er. They lived together in one of the castles and had a good 
time all their lives, while the innocent and much injured faith- 
ful wife got what comfort she could from a life passed within 
the narrow walls of the convent. If I could have had the 
shaping of this legend I should certainly have rewarded the 
beautiful woman with a first class emperor for a husband, and 
had her spend her days in both the castles, and made Conrad 
carry water on his back from the Rhine to the Castle eighteen 
hours per day, and given him only cold beans and crusts of 
bread from the servants' table. 

Towering nearly four hundred feet above St. Goar is the 
castle of Rheinfels, the largest and most imposing ruin on the 
Rhine. Opposite St. Goar are the lofty rocks of the Lorelei, 
and here the Rhine is the narrowest and most winding in its 



UP THE RHINE. 59 

course, and has a depth of seventy-five feet. Upon this moun- 
tain dwelt a syren who appeared with wondrous form and 
beauty and lured passing sailors to destruction in a whirlpool 
at its base. Modern engineering has removed the most dan- 
gerous part of the rock, and this part of the river is now 
feared only by very small boats. 

Around the first bend in the river a ledge of rocks in the 
bed of the stream, visible at low water, is called the Seven 
Virgins. In the neighboring castle of Schoneberg, long since 
in ruins, lived the seven beautiful daughters of a brave knight. 
They played the mischief with the hearts of the noble young 
men in the surrounding country and ended by jilting them 
all. The stony-hearted flirts were one day on the river in a 
boat, when the god of love, enraged at them for their unwom- 
anly conduct, wrecked their frail craft and sank them in the 
river, in order I presume to soften their hearts. But they 
seemed never to have relented but rather to have petrified, 
and are now a sad warning to all young ladies never to refuse 
an eligible young man. 

Above Caub, on a ledge of rocks in the middle of the river 
is the small and well preserved castle of Pfalz, which has only 
one entrance, and that reached by a ladder. It was built for 
the purpose of levying toll on passing boats. 

Above Lorch rises a high and nearly perpendicular rock, 
called the Devil's Ladder, which a knight is said to have 
scaled by means of a long ladder built by dwarfs, in order that 
he might rescue a fair lady who had been abducted by evil 
spirits. 

From this point to Bingen, a distance of some seven miles, 
is the culminating place of the beauty of the Rhine, and there 



6o TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

are from nine to twelve ruined castles in sight all the time, 
ending with the celebrated Mouse Tower of the cruel Bishop 
Hatto, built on a ledge of rocks in the bed of the river. 
Mrs. Norton's familiar poem : 

"A soldier of the legion lay dying in Algiers," 

has made Bingen famous. Above here the character of the 
country changes very rapidly, the hills recede from the river, 
and we are in the finest grape and wine section of the Rhine. 
The famous Johannesberg vineyard, of forty acres, which 
produces the finest wine on the river, is just above Bingen. In 
its best years it has given its owner a revenue of $1,000 per 
acre. 

From Bonn to Bingen there are ruins of a large number of 
watch towers, of which we have made no mention. These 
were generally built close to the river and were usually circular. 
The vine is cultivated all along the Rhine wherever there is a 
southern exposure, and the suddenness with which the vine- 
yards change from one side of the river to the other, as the 
stream changes its direction, is very noticeable to an American. 
In many places the hillsides are terraced up to the very top 
and planted with the vine. This is particularly the case with 
the great mountain opposite Bingen, where the expense of 
preparing the ground, and there are several hundred acres of 
it, must have been thousands of dollars per acre. The whole 
Rhine district shows long continued and careful cultivation. 

The American naturally institutes a comparison between the 
Rhine and the Hudson, and travelers are not at all agreed in 
their preferences. There are plain, practical men who look 
upon a ruined castle merely as an old stone pile, and for whom 



UP THE RHINE. 6l 

the scenery and the legends have no charm. They cannot see 
a prosperous city or a good farm from Bonn to Bingen, and so 
are loud in their denunciations of the Rhine as one of the 
many swindles to which travelers are subjected in a foreign 
land, and profess they would enjoy a ride along the Erie canal 
better. Such men ought not to waste their time and money 
abroad and disgrace respectable Americans in the eyes of 
foreigners. 

From Bonn to Bingen, a ride up the river of some eight hours, 
the traveler is constantly interested in the ever changing picture 
before him. The narrow, winding river, the steep hills rising 
often abruptly from the water, the scores of ruined castles nearly 
all with their legends, the watch towers and modern castles one 
or more of which are almost constantly in view, the quaint 
little German villages crowded in between the hills and the 
river, and the strangeness of everything one sees, makes the 
day up the Rhine one of the most enjoyable the traveler will 
have abroad. The river here is not so large as the Hudson, 
and hence does not have that grand and powerful sweep with 
which the Hudson flows along. 

If the reader can imagine some ninety miles of river like 
the Hudson along West Point and Stony Point, every mile or 
so crown the highest and often the most inaccessible peaks 
with ruined castles, scatter strange looking villages along the 
banks, cover the steep mountain sides with little patches of 
vines, or different kinds of grain, and weave around the whole 
the accumulated history and romance of twenty centuries, he 
will have something of an impression of the varied beauties 
of the Rhine. 

We well remember how one of our party, a straight-forward 



62 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

business man of the greatest intelligence and good sense, and 
without a partical of " sentimental gush " in his make up, sat 
all day on the deck of the steamer, taking in the varied beau- 
ties of the river, and could not even be induced to go below 
long enough to get his dinner. Our second ride up the Rhine 
gave us even more pleasure than the first, and it was with 
sincere regret that we left the steamer at Biebrich, and took 
carriage for Wiesbaden, which we reached late in the evening. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
GERMAN WATERING PLACES. 

WIESBADEN is one of the oldest watering-places in Europe, 
for it was known to the Romans, as Pliny speaks of its 
hot baths. It is now a. city of more than 40,000 permanent 
residents, while some 60,000 travelers and invalids visit here 
annually. It is pleasantly situated on high ground a few miles 
back from the Rhine, and is surrounded by a well cultivated, 
rolling country. A view from any elevation in the city shows 
a region which reminds an American of the better parts of 
New England. The city consists of an old and a new part — 
the old with narrow, crooked streets and all the peculiarities 
of venerable continental cities; the new, which is built around 
the old, with wide, straight streets and fine shops and resi- 
dences. The most important hot spring of the several within 



GERMAN WATERING PLACES. 63 

the city is connected with one of the main avenues by a long 
covered walk. 

The water of this spring, of which chloride of sodium, 
common salt, is the chief ingredient, comes to the surface with 
a temperature of 15 6° Fahr., and is carried to various bathing 
houses in the vicinity. The waters are particularly beneficial 
in cases of rheumatism and gout, and the great number of in- 
valids being wheeled around in rolling chairs is a sad contrast 
to the otherwise pleasure-seeking appearance of the visitors. 
If you wish a drink of good Wiesbaden mineral water you 
can have it at home by taking a glass of hot water, and put- 
ting in it a teaspoonful of salt, and a piece of kitchen soap 
about the size of a pea. After it is thoroughly mixed sit 
under the shade and struggle with it until you swallow it, if 
you can, and you will have a good idea of the taste of the 
water. 

The chief attraction, however, of a German watering-place 
is the Cursaal, which, in general, is a fine large building con- 
taining a concert hall, a ball room, a reading room, refresh- 
ment rooms, and other apartments for the convenience of 
visitors. In the Cursaals were the great gambling establish- 
ments in the times when gambling was carried on publicly 
and on a grand scale. 

During the season at a continental watering-place music 
is always furnished from once to four times per day. These 
bands, which are the finest in Europe, are engaged by the 
season, and paid by the city. Sometimes a tax is levied on 
every one who passes through the place, as at Interlaken, but 
generally a small admittance fee is required. The citizens of 
the place also contribute toward the support of the band, so that 



64 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

in the end the city government is at but little expense. Those 
who remain for any length of time purchase at a very reason- 
able price the privileges of the place, including the use of 
hot spring water and admittance to all the concerts. These 
concerts are in the open air when the weather is favorable, at 
other times in the concert hall of the Cursaal. 

In front of the Cursaal at Wiesbaden is a beautiful garden, ly- 
ing between two long colonades, in which are a great number of 
small shops for the sale of jewelry and mementos. Back of the 
Cursaal is a small open space nearly covered with chairs, 
which is a favorite lounging place, and where the open air 
concerts are given. This is on one side of a little lake, be- 
yond which is a park beautifully laid out in walks and drives. 
The reader can scarcely conceive anything more delightful 
than these open air concerts in pleasant summer evenings. 
He must be utterly without sentiment who cannot enjoy an 
hour in the moonlight in the seat under the great tree on the 
island, listening to the soft strains of exquisite music from the 
opposite side of the lake. 

Life at Wiesbaden consists in drinking the water at from 
five to eight o'clock in the morning, lounging and smoking 
until dinner, driving until dusk, and attending the concert in 
the evening. There are many pleasant excursions in the 
neighborhood, by walking or riding, for those who are more 
actively disposed. There are few of those immense hotels 
which are the peculiar misfortune of our American watering 
places, but everywhere are "apartments," in which one can 
live with all the comfort and quiet of home. While undoubt- 
ly society has claims on people here, they do not appear to be 
as exacting as with us. In brief it seems as if people go to 



GERMAN WATERING PLACES. 65 

Wiesbaden more for good solid comfort than for display. 
Americans are beginning to realize that the less ostentatious 
way of spending the summer is the better, and our smaller 
places among the mountains and by the seaside are rapidly 
filling up with a class of people who appreciate comfort and 
will have it. 

Wiesbaden counts among its attractions a small army of 
the nobility, headed by the Emperor William and the royal 
family, and grading down to the innumerable minor nobles of 
the countless small provinces which are now amalgamated 
into the German Empire. These are here in such numbers 
that you can hardly draw a bow at a venture without hitting 
one. Amusements of all kinds are kept up on the Sabbath 
the same as on week days, and one Sabbath we noticed a 
large circus in full blast near our hotel. 

On the route to Baden-Baden we pass through Frankfort-on- 
the-Main, which we give only a brief visit. It is an interesting 
city, presenting entirely different phases in the old and new 
parts. The new part is particularly fine, and the Jews' Quar- 
ter of the old part is a great curiosity. We pass the Hotel de 
Swan where Bismarck and Thiers signed the treaty at the 
conclusion of the Franco-German war, the house with project- 
ing stories on the corner of the street in which Martin Luther 
lived for a short time, the small plain house in which Goethe 
was born, in 1749, the Jewish Synagogue said to be the richest 
Jewish congregation in the world, two open squares, one con- 
taining a fine monument of Guttenberg, the father of printing, 
the other of Goethe the poet, the Bourse or money market, 
and numerous cathedrals and public buildings. One of the 
most interesting parts of Frankfort is the old Jewish Quarter, 



66 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

which has curious wooden houses many stories high. One of 
the most dilapidated of these is pointed out as the residence 
of the father of the distinguished Rothchild family. 

Until 1806 this Jews' street was closed and locked every 
night and during holidays, and nojjew was permitted to ap- 
pear in the city under penalty of a heavy fine. 

Baden-Baden, which dates to as early an origin as Wies- 
baden, is one of the most popular watering places in Europe, 
and has no rival in Germany except Wiesbaden. It is most 
delightfully situated on the little river Oos, just in the edge of 
the Black Forest, in the midst of well-wooded hills which only 
a short distance from the city rise into mountains. The gen- 
eral characteristics of the city are the same as those of Wies- 
baden. 

The chemical ingredients of the warm springs, and the 
complaints for which the water is considered beneficial, are 
nearly the same as have already been mentioned. Baden has 
its beautiful parks, its music, its Bazar and its Conversations- 
haus, or Cursaal, which is much finer than the one at Wies- 
baden. This was built and fitted up by the lessee of the 
gambling privilege, and in this building were the gaming tables 
which were once so famous all over Europe. In 1872 public 
gambling was prohibited throughout Germany, and since then 
this beautiful building with its great rooms so gorgeously fit- 
ted up is used as a music hall and place for public entertain- 
ments. 

Baden also has a fine theatre near the Cursaal, and on the 
other side of it a Trinkhalle where the water from all the 
springs is collected. This has a broad open portico, with 
large Corinthian pillars, and on large panels over the windows 



GERMAN WATERING PLACES. 67 

back of the pillars are fourteen fine paintings of large size, 
representing some of those local legends with which nearly 
every German village abounds. 

Baden, from its proximity to the Black Forest, which was 
supposed to be inhabited by all kinds of enchanters and spir- 
its, is particularly rich in such legends. For a long distance 
through the city the Oos flows in an artificially made, stone 
covered channel, the center to which the water is confined 
most of the time being a gutter less than two feet wide and 
not more than six inches deep. 

The park which extends for a long way up the stream, is 
kept in perfect order, but somehow our enjoyment of it re- 
ceived a chill, when one morning while taking an early walk 
we found as many as thirty old and middle aged women, 
bareheaded, sweeping the carriage ways and wheeling the 
dirt away in large barrows. Baden is certainly a beautiful 
place, and must be a delightful summer residence for a wealthy 
German. For a few days at least during the season, in com- 
mon with three or four other summer resorts, Baden basks in 
the sunlight of imperial favor, and numbers the Emperor 
William among her honored guests. The round of amuse- 
ments is much the same as at Wiesbaden and other resorts. 
Much of the glory of Baden departed with the closing of the 
gambling establishment, and the citizens think with yearnings 
unutterable of the good times now gone when the gold so 
recklessly poured out at the gaming-table flowed in a rich 
stream through the shops and boarding houses of the city. 

A drive of an hour all the way up hill brings us to the ruins 
of the old castle, a thousand feet above the city. The castle 
was built many hundred years ago, and is made of large rough 



68 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

stone, without any attempt at ornamentation. The view from 
the tower gives us a wide outlook over the Rhine, the valley 
in which Baden is situated, and beyond, the broad, somber 
expanse of the Black Forest. 

In going from Frankfort to Baden, a distance of a little 
more than a hundred miles, we pass near Worms, memorable 
from its association with Martin Luther, and through Heidel- 
berg, which, with its ruined castle and distinguished Univer- 
sity, will be the subject of another chapter. 



CHAPTER IX. 
HEIDELBERG. 



AN a pleasant summer afternoon, the train on which we were, 
\J was winding along the fertile valley of the Rhine, when 
with a sudden turn it swept away from the river toward the 
dark mountains, some ten miles distant. Half an hour later, 
we were in the beautiful and romantically situated city of 
Heidelberg, gazing in almost open-mouthed amazement at 
the grand, tree covered mountain which seemed to hang over 
our heads, and wondering how a city could ever possibly be 
squeezed in between it and the Neckar which washes its base. 
By six o'clock we had gone through the eight or ten formal 
courses of the table (T Hdte dinner, and were on our way up 
the long street which led to the castle, more than three hun- 
dred feet above the city. We had time only for a hurried 



HEIDELBERG. 69 

glance at the ruins, which are the grandest and most exten- 
sive of any in Germany, before the declining sun threw around 
us the glories of a beautiful sunset. Late in the evening, as 
we sat in our room talking with a friend, the full moon came 
up from behind the great mountain and shone upon the city 
and the distant ruined castle with a richness of silver light 
which throws a peculiar charm about such a scene as this. 

The next morning, under the guidance of a friend, a student 
in the University, we set out for an all day's tramp over the 
mountain and through the ruined castle. Several hours' walk- 
ing along well made paths winding constantly upward through 
the woods of the mountain side, brought us to the summit, 
more than twelve hundred feet above the city. On the way 
up we had many beautiful outlooks from resting places along 
the path, giving us constantly varying and widening views of 
the city, the castle and the surrounding country. A part of 
the time we went up the remains of a long flight of stairs 
called Heaven's Ladder, which formerly extended from the 
castle straight up the side of the mountain to its very top. 

But no language can begin to do justice to the wonderful 
panorama which lay before us after we had ascended the tow- 
er on the Konigsstuhl, or King's Seat. Below, and far away 
beyond the city, is the fertile plain with the Rhine and Neckar 
winding through it. Beyond the Rhine are the Hartz Moun- 
tains with their wealth of legends, and in sight are also the 
Odenwald, the Suabian and Taunus mountains, and on the 
other side of the tower, the broad, rolling, unbroken green of 
the hills and mountains of the Black Forest. On a clear day, 
with a good glass, the spires of the cathedral at Strasburg can 
be seen by any one who has a good imagination. Descending 



yo TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

by a circuitous path we go through acres of huckleberry bush- 
es, and these, indeed, give a name to it, for Heidelberg, in 
English, means nothing more than huckleberry hill or moun- 
tain. 

" What's in a name? " Everything. How all that is beau- 
tiful and romantic seems to be suggested by the " Old Castle 
of Heidelberg," but when we begin to talk about the " old 
stone house on huckleberry hill," the poetical has all oozed out 
of us, and we are brought down to the very plairuest matter of 
fact. In the same way, when we think of moonlight walks 
" under the lindens," we picture to ourselves, brown-haired, 
blue-eyed German lovers with their arms around each other 
in a romantic and natural manner — but when we talk about 
"moonlight under the bass-wood," which means the same 
thing, it is impossible to bring up anything poetical or to think 
of anything short of Samantha Simpkins and Hezekiah Raw- 
bones straggling awkwardly along on opposite sides of the 
road, and venturing an occasional remark about huskings, quilt- 
ings, or the prospect of the " applesass " crop. 

On the way down we have a fine view of the valley of the 
Neckar, and up a pretty little stream on the opposite side 
of the river. We again see the city from a height above the 
castle, and from it are enabled to get something of an idea of 
the great size of the castle and the gardens around it. De- 
scending, we enter the castle grounds at the Great Terrace, 
which forms one side of the gardens, and from which there 
is a very fine view of the castle, the city and the country be- 
yond as far as the Hartz mountains. A part of this terrace is 
a very high wall built up from the gardens below and filled in 
against the side of the mountain. Between this and the crag 



HEIDELBERG. 7 1 

on which the castle stands there was formerly a large flower 
garden which must have presented a beautiful appearance 
from the part of the castle facing it, or from the terrace. 

A walk of a quarter of a mile along the terrace brings us to 
the main entrance of the castle, beyond which, and nearer to 
the town is the Elizabethan gate, a large triumphal arch, 
built by one of the lords of the castle in honor of his English 
wife Elizabeth. The main entrance was formerly over the 
moat by a draw bridge and through a watch tower with a nar- 
row passage closed by a massive portcullis, whose rusty iron 
points can still be seen above our heads as we enter. The 
entrance leads into a great open square, around which the 
buildings are mostly arranged. There are thirteen or fourteen 
of them in all, of various sizes and in different degrees of 
preservation. These were built by successive rulers from 
600 to 300 years ago, and finished with more or less elaborate 
ornamentation. 

The castle was several times besieged and captured, and 
was three times destroyed, and entirely or partly rebuilt. 
About two hundred years ago the fortifications of the place 
were blown up, the castle was set on fire and a part of the 
town burned by the French. It was afterwards partially re- 
stored, but a little less than a hundred years ago it was 
struck by lightning and its destruction completed. Since 
then it has been left in ruins, but carefully preserved. Several 
of the buildings have temporary roofs, and some are occupied 
by the attendants. 

As we wander for hours through the many rooms, banquet 
halls, chapels and underground passages connected with this 
vast system of buildings, we begin to realize in a measure 



72 



TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 



what must have been its magnificence when it was completed, 
three hundred years ago. A part of a round tower at one 
angle of the fortification which was blown up by the French, 
shows a wall of solid masonry twenty feet in thickness. 

In one of the many cellars is the celebrated tun or wine 
cask which is the largest ever constructed. It was built one 
hundred and thirty years ago, and though unused at present 
is in a good state of preservation. It is almost as large as a 
house, having a length of thirty-two feet, a head diameter of 
twenty-two feet, and a bung diameter of twenty-five feet. 
Measured around the middle it would girt more than seventy- 
eight feet. It holds eight hundred hogsheads of wine, and its 
contents would fill 283,000 bottles. Near it stands a figure of 
one of the court fools, who is said to have taken eighteen bot- 
tles of wine daily, and the color of whose face and the size of 
his stomach confirms the story. 

In many places the ruined buildings are covered with a dense 
growth of ivy, as if Nature were kindly attempting to hide 
man's signal failure to construct that which will endure for- 
ever. By many travelers Heidelberg Castle is thought to be the 
finest ruin in Europe out of Italy, and I cannot recall one 
which I remember with more satisfaction. In the evening we 
had the pleasure of seeing the ruins illuminated in honor of a 
convention of millers who came to the city for an excursion. 

The University of Heidelberg shares with the Castle the 
honor and pride of the citizens. An American looking over 
the city finds no grand buildings which suggest to him the idea 
of a great University, but scattered here and there are old dingy 
structures which are pointed out to him as making up the 
University. I admit it was with a feeling of disappointment 



HEIDELBERG. 73 

that my friend, a student in the University, took me to a plain, 
brick, three story building, which looked like a common court- 
house without a steeple or dome, and entering a small door 
told me I was in one of the lecture room buildings of the Uni- 
versity. We passed along a narrow hall, took a drink of 
water from a faucet in the wall, and turning down a still nar- 
rower passage at the right, a few steps brought us to a door 
which opened into a room where we were to attend the lecture. 

This room was perhaps fifty feet square with windows on 
two sides. The desks were long benches, the seat of one 
being the back and desk of the one next behind, just like the 
benches in country school houses years ago. If these had 
ever been painted there were no traces of it left, and the no- 
ble German student, after the manner of the bare-footed 
Yankee boy in Connecticut, has not been above leaving the 
marks of his jack knife on the seats. Ink bottles also seem to 
have a way of upsetting here and sending their contents over 
the desk and floor just as they do with us. The lecturer's 
platform was on the center of one side of the room, and had 
a plain desk in front of it like a common pulpit. 

The students, some sixty or more, were all in their places 
quietly talking with each other before the professor entered. 
When the lecturer opened the door he was greeted with sub- 
dued applause, which he seemed not to notice, but walked 
rapidly to the platform, where standing behind the desk and 
opening his manuscript he at once commenced his lecture. 
He spoke for an hour on the principles of International Law, 
without even once consulting his manuscript, and during this 
time there was the most perfect attention on the part of his 
hearers. A considerable part of the students took very few 



74 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

notes, as the lecturer had published a book on the same sub- 
ject but a short time previous. At the close of the lecture 
the same quiet applause was renewed and the students re- 
mained seated until the Professor had passed into the hall, 
when they arose and went quietly out. 

It would be considered a mark of the greatest discourtesy 
for one to go out during the progress of a lecture unless the 
circumstances were most pressing. If any student should 
show intentional disrespect to a professor or disturb a lecture 
he would be imprisoned for from two to ten months according 
to the nature of the offence. In their treatment of each other 
the students are most careful of their personal dignity and 
honor. Anything like hazing or abusive language, even the 
calling of a fellow student a fool, will bring down the wrath of 
the authorities on the offender's head and at the least will 
give him a suspension of six months, and he will be posted so 
that he cannot enter any University in Germany during this 
time. The students who are acquainted with each other al- 
ways lift their hats in passing. 

In regard to duelling and dissipation I find that this is con- 
fined almost entirely to what are called corps students. There 
are five of these corps or clubs in the University and they 
include not more than one-fourth of its seven hundred stu- 
dents. 

The corps students can be known by their brilliant, em- 
broidered caps, which look something like smoking caps. 
The duelling is confined entirely to these students, and is car- 
ried on in a systematic manner, there being usually one duel 
a week during term time. Generally the combatants are ap- 
pointed by the captain of the club, and the contest is carried 



HEIDELBERG. 75 

on in the presence of the members. The duellists use slender 
swords sharpened only at the point. They protect the upper 
part of the face and chest with a wire screen, and the arms 
with heavy gauntlets. A surgeon is always at hand and a 
fencing master stands by the side of each to ward off any blow 
which may seem dangerous. Thus protected the contest con- 
tinues until one has received a wound generally on the face. 
The scars thus formed are called honorable and are a record 
of University life, " pointed to with pride " by the young men 
and their friends. 

We saw in the city several young men with plasters on their 
faces, where the wounds had not yet healed, and a dozen or 
more whose faces were very much disfigured with these tokens 
of mistaken honor. Some had several scars each and looked 
as if they might have come off second best in some bear fight. 
The greater part of the beer drinking and smoking is done by 
these corps students. The popular idea of the fighting, smok- 
ing, drinking German student, is no more the real one than 
the hazing sophomore, in " Yale College Scrapes " represents 
the true College man. As in our colleges, a large majority of 
the students are faithful, hard working men. The library, 
which is in the center of the city and is not a fire proof build- 
ing, contains 300,000 volumes 70,000 pamphlets and 3,500 
manuscripts and diplomas. 

There are some things of interest in and around this quaint 
old city, aside from the University and Castle, and while it 
can hardly be called a watering-place, there are few German 
towns which have more people from abroad residing in them 
during the summer. Last year there were so many Ameri- 
cans here that they had a Fourth of July dinner, at which 
Mark Twain made one of his happiest speeches. 



j6 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

CHAPTER X. 

THE SWISS LAKES. 

FROM Baden a ride of about two hours brings us to Stras- 
burg, where we stop long enough to pay a hasty visit to the 
Cathedral and its wonderful clock. If one has the ambition 
to climb up the four hundred and fifty feet of the Cathedral 
spire, he will be rewarded with a particularly fine view of a 
beautiful and fertile country. The astronomical clock which 
is within the church and is built on the floor, is remarkable for 
the number of things which it indicates, and for the many 
figures which are in motion when the clock strikes. In the 
city we notice particularly the great number of awkward storks, 
which, being protected by law, are permitted to build their 
nests on the roofs and chimneys of the houses. The same 
thing is noticeable in the neighboring city of Basle. Strasburg, 
which is large and well fortified, is the capital of the provinces 
taken from the French during the late war, and was until 
recently nearly on the boundary between Germany, France 
and Switzerland. 

We make a brief stop at Basle, noted as being the residence 
for a time of Erasmus the friend of Luther. In its Cathedral 
is all that remains of Holbein's celebrated frescoes of " The 
Dance of Death." 

Our next stopping place is Schaffhausen, at the falls of the 
Rhine, which is one of the finest cascades in Europe. Neither 
in height of fall or volume of water is it to be compared with 
Niagara, and yet it is well worth a visit. The river is highest 



THE SWISS LAKES. 77 

in June and July when the snow among the Alps is melting. 
At this time the current is full and strong, and the water is 
dashed into foam as it is hurled over the rocks, and if the 
traveler is favored with the light of a clear, full moon he will 
carry away with him a picture which he will recall often with 
pleasure. 

At one place a path has been built under and into the fall- 
ing water, where one can hardly stand because of the spray 
which dashes over him constantly. From this point the rush 
of the foaming water seems to be overwhelming, and yet from 
the opposite side of the river, you can see that you have been 
under only a small jet of the great fall. Nearly in the center of 
the falls is a steep rocky island, up which a way has been cut 
in the rock to a little lookout on the top, from which it seems 
as if the entire mass of water washing over the falls, is being 
hurled at you. The rock can be reached by a boat from be- 
low the falls by such as do not mind being roughly shaken 
about on the water and are willing to take the chances of a 
thorough drenching. 

Our hotel here was the first at which we stopped where the 
waiters were girls. They wore a costume which, as in many 
places in Switzerland and Germany, is peculiar to the locality. 
It consists of a black velvet bodice, cut square in the neck, 
laced at the sides, and fastened with large silver clasps con- 
nected by long silver chains. The bodice also has wide 
white sleeves. The costume is quite pretty, which I reluctantly 
record is more than can be said of the girls who wore it. 

On our way to Lucerne we stop at Zurich, which is one of 
the most flourishing of the Swiss cities, noted for its manufac- 
tories of silk and cotton, its world renowned Polytechnic 



78 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

Institute and for its unrivalled location. Situated at the foot 
of Lake Zurich it has from nearly every part of the city a 
superb view of the lake, whose green shores are dotted on 
each side with villages and summer hotels, while the snow- 
capped Alps rise in the distant background. The settlement 
of the place antedates Roman times and indeed any authentic 
history. In the museum here is preserved the finest known 
collection of relics from the ancient lake dwellers, who have 
been as great a mystery to the antiquarians as our mound 
builders, and about whom next to nothing is as yet known. 
In the old armory the traveler will be shown one of the nu- 
merous cross bows which claim the distinction of having once 
belonged to William Tell, if indeed our cold blooded histori- 
ans do not decide that such a person never lived. 

Leaving Zurich we soon reach Lake Zug, a beautiful little 
sheet of water nine miles long by three in breadth, which is 
deeply set in betweeen green mountain slopes, while towards 
the south towers the lofty Mount Righi which is here visible 
from base to summit. 

Shortly after we reach Lucerne which is located at the foot 
of a lake of the same name, and is a favorite resort of tourists. 
A clear, dark stream which issues from the lake and flows 
swiftly through the city, is crossed by four bridges, two of 
which are old and very quaint. These two are furnished with 
roofs and are decorated with paintings, one with 154 pictures 
representing incidents in the lives of the patron saints of the 
city, the other with 45 grotesque pictures of the " Dance of 
Death," in which the grim Skeleton Reaper is represented as 
present in every occupation of life. Many of these pictures 
are utterly ludicrous to the modern mind, and entirely fail to 



THE SWISS LAKES. 79 

produce that solemn and lasting moral effect which the artist 
evidently intended. 

Of coarse every one hears the great organ, which is one of 
the best three or four in Europe. But to me the first thing 
in Lucerne is Thorwaldsen's grand figure of the dying lion. 
This is 28 feet in length cut in the face of a solid perpen- 
dicular rock, and is a monument to the memory of 26 officers 
and 760 soldiers of the Swiss guard who were massacred in 
the defense of the Tuilleries in 1792. The grand propor- 
tions of the figure, and the majesty and dignity of the expres- 
sion of the dead lion's face are a study for hours. Again and 
again have I gone back and looked at it another hour, until 
the grand conception of the artist and his faultless represen- 
tation of it in the side of the rock are, as it were, burned into 
my memory, never, I trust, to be dimmed or forgotten. 

From Lucerne a sail of three hours takes us to Fluelen, at 
the opposite end of the lake of the Four Cantons, one of the 
most beautiful sails which all Switzerland can boast. The 
whole extent of the lake abounds in legends of Switzerland's 
great hero, and the incidents and scenery are faithfully de- 
picted in Schiller's William Tell. 

We pass the little district of Gersau, a tract of only eight 
square miles, shut in on all sides by mountains and lakes. It 
boasts the distinction of being for four hundred years a free 
state, and the smallest one that has ever had an independent 
existence. Soon after, we pass a perpendicular rock rising 
from the lake, which is inscribed in huge gilt letters in honor 
of " Frederick Schiller, the Bard of Tell." A few minutes later 
our steamer passes close by a little building called Tell's 
Chapel, erected on the spot where it is said he sprang from 
Gessler's boat, 



80 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

Two miles from Fluelen is the little village of Altdorf where 
Tell performed his terrible feat of archery and defied Gessler. 
The familiar story of his shooting the apple from his son's 
head is dear to every Swiss heart and is often illustrated in 
ornamenting houses, for I have several times seen at one cor- 
ner of a house the wooden figure of a boy with an apple on 
his head, and at the other a carved archer with drawn cross- 
bow aiming at the apple. 

At this end of the lake we are in the midst of snow capped 
mountains, and in sight, nearly over our heads, a glacier is 
working its way slowly, its lower end dropping almost into the 
lake. Returning we land at Vitznau, at the foot of Mount 
Righi, where we take the railway up the mountain. This road 
is about four miles in length, and in this distance makes an 
elevation of nearly 4,000 feet. In some places the up' grade 
is one foot in every four. It is constructed like the Mount 
Washington railway, with a heavy cog rail between the two 
common rails, which connects with a strong cog wheel on the 
main axle of the engine. The ascent takes about an hour and 
a quarter. To my surprise I found in place of the cheap and 
small hotel which was on the summit five years ago, two fine 
hotels, one costing nearly $400,000. 

The Righi is nearly 6,000 feet above the level of the sea, 
and about 4,500 feet above lake Lucerne which washes its 
base. From the summit there is one of the finest and most 
extended views to be seen from any place in Europe. This 
magnificent panorama has a circumference of nearly three hun- 
dred miles, and includes a range of snow covered Alps one 
hundred and twenty miles long, thirteen lakes of different 
sizes, one so near that you think you can certainly throw a 



THE SWISS LAKES. 8 1 

stone into it from where you stand, and on one side a broad 
open plain which stretches away into the Black Forest in the 
far distance. 

After enjoying the wonderful view for an hour or more we 
retire early, as we are to be awakened by the Alpine horn at 
3:30 in the morning to see the sunrise. At that unseemly hour 
we hear a strange, sweet sound ringing through the halls of 
the hotel which seems to say to us as we are yet half asleep, 
"tra-da-tra-da-dui-da." In a few minutes a motely crowd of 
sleepy eyed people are shivering in the cold wind which 
sweeps across the summit, and looking anxiously toward that 
quarter of the heavens where it is hoped the sun will soon 
appear. 

No language can begin to describe the beauty of the scene 
as the daylight and then the rays of the sun glance from peak 
to peak of the snow covered mountains. A clear sunrise seen 
from Righi is one of the few things which can be seen but a 
few mornings in a year, and if once enjoyed, can never be 
forgotten. The botanist of our party found more than forty 
varieties of flowers growing within a few rods of the hotel. 
After breakfast we descend by way of the inclined railway 
and take the boat for Alpnach, from which we go by carriages 
over the Brunig Pass to Giessbach on Lake Brienz. The car- 
riage road over Brunig is a wonder of engineering skill, and 
many times as we looked ahead at the apparently impassible 
mountains, it seemed as if the road must certainly come to an 
untimely end. The ascent is comparatively uninteresting but 
the descent is very fine. When not far from the summit of 
the pass, on turning abruptly around a great wall of rock, we 
suddenly come in sight of lake Brienz, several hundred feet 



82 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

below us, and all the way down have frequent glimpses of the 
distant lake and the mountains beyond it. 

At Giessbach we are also pleasantly surprised to find a very 
fine new hotel in place of an old one. This place which, con- 
sists of nothing but this great hotel, is visited entirely for the 
sake of the waterfall and its illumination by night. Its six 
cascades are lighted by different colored Bengal lights, which 
are burned back of them. This gives the appearance of a 
waterfall of different colored flame and is certainly striking 
however questionable may be its taste. 

A ride of less than an hour brings us to Interlaken, a vil- 
lage of hotels, the Saratoga of Switzerland, which is most 
delightfully situated on a plain between two lakes and in full 
sight of the snow covered Jungfrau. It is the headquarters 
for excursions into the Oberland, and the point from which 
trips are best made to the glacier of Grindelwald and the lit- 
tle waterfall of Staubbach which makes an unbroken leap of 
980 feet, and falls in fine mist at the base of the precipice. 

A ride of three hours brings us to the quaint city of Berne, 
which is said to have preserved its characteristic features bet- 
ter than any other Swiss town. Along the principal streets 
the houses are built on arches over the side walk. Berne is 
the capital of the Swiss confederacy, and contains the plain 
and inexpensive but convenient government buildings. The 
session of their legislative body had just closed and we had 
the pleasure only of seeing the rooms in which it was held. 
The President of the Republic receives the princely salary of 
$600 per year. 

The city has many things of interest, of which we can only 
mention the Tower Clock, which is fully as much of a curios- 



THE SWISS LAKES. 83 

ity as the one at Strasburg, the fountain of the Orgie, which 
is surmounted by a fearful figure devouring little children, 
and the bear pits which are kept up at public expense. The 
bear which is the heraldic emblem of the city is seen every- 
where, and the figure of a bear is even g stamped on the bottom 
of loaves of bread. 

We were much interested in the museum and* its adjoining 
library, which contained a fine collection of lacustrine remains 
from the various Swiss lakes, many pieces of tapestry most 
beautifully wrought, several of which belonged to Charles the 
Bold, and two or three boxes made of oak supposed to be 
more than two thousand years old. In color and firmness it 
was much like ebony. 

In the library the lady attendant, after showing us many 
beautiful books from the early times, one more than eight 
hundred years old, knowing us to be a party of Americans, 
brought out, with a look of genuine pleasure, a large volume 
published by the United States Government containing letters 
and communications of condolence from other governments 
on the assassination of President Lincoln. 

But with only mentioning the carved wood work, music 
boxes, and cuckoo clocks for which Berne is noted, we must 
take our readers on through Freiburg with its celebrated or- 
gan to Lausanne, where at the Hotel Gibbon, in the garden 
of which the historian wrote a part of the " Decline and Fall 
of the Roman Empire," we will leave you to recover from the 
rapid travel you have had in this letter, and prepare yourselves 
for a trip with us in the next chapter over the Tete-Noire Pass 
to Mt. Blanc. 



34 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 



CHAPTER XI. 
MONT BLANC. 
" Lake Leman wooes me with its crystal face," 

SANG Byron in the wanderings of Childe Harold, and it has 
charmed and fascinated every one who has seen it, from great 
C?esar to the traveler of the present time. Any one who has 
gone by rail from Freiburg can never forget the first sight of 
Lake Geneva, as coming through a tunnel the train turns 
suddenly to the right and the whole magnificent panorama of 
the broad expanse of water, with its surrounding mountains, 
bursts suddenly and unexpectedly upon him. 

Taking the morning boat from Lausanne up the lake, in an 
hour we are landed at a station, a mile from the castle of 
Chillon, whose white walls, rising apparently from the very 
water, had been in sight for some time. A pleasant walk 
along a well made carriage way at the foot of the vine clad 
hills brings us to the bridge which crosses the moat. Over 
the entrance to the castle we see engraved in German, the 
strange motto for a prison, " May God bless all who come in 
and go out." As soon as we are within the walls we seek the 
dungeons which have been clothed with such a melancholy 
interest by Byron's poem, "The Prisoner of Chillon." 

Two or three underground rooms must be passed through 
before reaching the main dungeon. In one of these is a 
blackened beam on which prisoners were sometimes executed, 
another has a narrow, obscure stairway which communicates 
with the council chamber above, and in a third is a huge fiat 



MONT BLANC. gr 

rock on which the condemned were said to pass their last 
night. Going through a low, double doorway, with the rem- 
nant of a great iron door yet hanging by its rusty hinges, we 
come into a large, dimly-lighted dungeon where, 

" There are seven pillars of gothic mold, 
And in each pillar there is a ring, 
And in each ring there is a chain." 

The column to which Bonivard is said to have been 
chained yet has a massive, rusted iron ring fastened to it. 
The deep circular paths worn in the rocks around each of 
these pillars tell of years of anguish which have rolled over 
the unhappy prisoners who have been here confined. The 
surroundings are literally as Byron gives them, and we can 
almost see the wild-eyed prisoner tugging to break his chain 
that he may reach the body of his dead brother. Among the 
hundreds of names inscribed on the pillars we find Byron, 
Sue, George Sand and Victor Hugo. 

With an involuntary shudder we leave the dungeons which 
are so suggestive of suffering and death and go through the 
apartments above. In the center of one is a great wooden 
pillar to which the victims were fastened and tortured, and 
marks of the fire are in it yet. Not far from here is a deep, 
dark well or pit opening into the waters of the lake, down 
which the executed were thrown, and where the condemned 
were frequently cast alive. The whole place seemed reeking 
with murder and we were glad to get out of it where we could 
look over the battlements into the deep water beneath. Look- 
ing out upon the lake we see the little island with the three 
trees which Byron mentioned. 



6 



86 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE, 

" And then there was a little isle, 
Which in my very face did smile, 
The only one in view." 

The castle of Chillon in itself considered is worthy but lit- 
tle attention, and were it not that it has been immortalized by 
the genius of Byron, it would be comparatively unknown to 
English speaking people. It is a mistake to suppose that 
Byron's "Prisoner" is the Bonivard who was so long impris- 
oned here by the Duke of Savoy, and yet we can but say: 

" Chillon ! thy prison is a holy place, 
And thy sad floor an altar — for 'twas trod 

Until his very steps have left a trace 
Worn, as if thy cold pavement were a sod, 

By Bonivard ! May none those marks efface ; 
For they appeal from tyranny to God." 

If in this connection the reader will turn to the third canto 
of " CJiilde Harold's Pilgrimage" he will find abundant de- 
scription of all this Lake Geneva region. 

Going by train up the Rhone Valley we soon come to the 
Gorge of the Trient, where this stream cuts through the base 
of a mountain range and makes its way into the Rhone. In 
some places the chasm is more than four hundred feet]deep 
and the perpendicular sides almost meet at the top. A broad 
footpath has been made up it which, suspended from the 
rock, crosses from side to side, giving many fine views. Eu- 
rope has but one finer gorge. Martigny, at the angle of the 
Rhone, is the intersection of three great mountain passes, the 
Simplon to Lago Maggiore in Italy, the Great St. Bernard to 
Turin, and the Tete-Noire to the valley of Chamouni at the 
very foot of Mt. Blanc. 

Leaving Martigny by carriage early in the morning we zig- 
zag up the side of the mountain for two or three hours, until 



MONT BLANC. 87 

the valley of the Rhone for a long distance lies below us, and 
what seemed mountains to us when we started, became little 
hills far below us. Much of the way the road is along the 
side of the mountain swept by avalanches in early spring, but 
these are very rare in summer, although at long intervals a 
traveler loses his life by one. We go up and up^ until the 
summit, 6,600 feet above sea level, is reached. From this 
point the descent into the valley on the opposite side is very 
steep and sudden. Then a ride of three or four hours down 
a winding, dashing stream, at the foot of grand, snow capped 
mountains, and nearly all the time in sight of glaciers, brings 
us to the beautiful, green valley of Chamouni, right at the 
base of Mt. Blanc, amid the grandest scenery which the Alps 
and all Europe can furnish. 

After a good night's rest we are up early andjready for the 
ascent of the Montanvert, a spur of Mt. Blanc from which 
there is a fine view of the Mer de Glace and the glaciers which 
form it. We climb slowly up by a winding path cut in the 
side of the mountain, and after a hard walk of two hours are 
at the little restaurant at the summit 6,300 feetj above the 
level of the sea. The ascent of this mountain is made solely 
for the fine view it affords of several of the immense seas of 
ice which fill all the higher gorges of the Alps, and particularly 
the Mt. Blanc range. 

If the reader can imagine a section of a vast river from ten 
to fifteen miles in length and from one and a half to four and a 
half miles wide and of unknown depth, tossed up into waves 
and then instantly frozen, he can get some idea of this great 
glacier. For ages it has ground its way along this gorge, push- 
ing the debris farther down into the valley until it looks as if 



88 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

a company of giants had been at work carrying the dirt and 
rocks down from the mountains. 

At the lower end of the glaciers, the edges for several hun- 
dred feet from the shore are so covered with dirt and rocks 
that it is often difficult to tell with any certainty where the 
edge of the chasm is. As it advances slowly over the irregu- 
larities of the bottom of the gorge the glacier is broken up 
by crevasses which generally extend across it. Many of these 
are shallow, while others are hundreds of feet deep, and a 
stone dropped down one of them crashes from side to side 
until it seems to be lost in the vast depth and the sound of 
the fall is no longer heard. On the top the glacier looks like 
snow ice and is honey-combed by the action of the sun, but a 
little way down it is solid and very blue. Higher up the 
glacier seems whiter and more firm, and still higher it is of a 
dazzling brilliancy, while there are many considerable sized 
hills of ice where two glacier streams join. 

With a guide there is very little danger in crossing the gla- 
cier, as steps are cut in the worst places and the iron pointed 
alpenstock prevents one from slipping. Only a few days 
before our visit a German professor from Berlin, slipped into 
an opening and was fatally injured. Crossing, we clamber 
over many rods of ground-up rock, which formed the edge 
of the glacier when it was larger and filled up more of the 
gorge, and up the side of the opposite mountain. We follow 
this down toward the valley at a considerable height above 
the glacier, and have constantly changing views of the frozen 
billows and icy walled chasms below us. 

In half an hour we come to what used to be the terrible 
Mauvais Pas, a path cut in the almost perpendicular side of 



MONT BLANC. 89 

the mountain, but now so well protected by iron railings that 
there is not the least danger, unless one is dizzy when at 
great heights. Most of the way the outer edge of the path is 
unprotected and it gives one a far from pleasant feeling to 
look over the jagged edge, and see the certain death on the 
sharp rocks hundreds of feet below which awaits the poor un- 
fortunate who makes only one misstep. 

A little farther on we come to the Chateau, a small house 
hidden behind projecting rocks so as to be out of the way of 
danger from avalanches which sweep down the mountain side 
in winter and early in spring. This is situated upon a pre- 
cipitous cliff, and from it is obtained a fine view up the glacier, 
and at right angles to this the whole valley of Chamouni 
seems to be sunk deep down between the mountains, while 
the impetuous little stream, the Arve, for a little way seems to 
forget its haste, and winds lovingly through the green mead- 
ows of the valley. Almost at a glance we have the lofty snow 
covered mountain tops, the great frozen river with its sluggish 
but powerful current, and nearly two thousand feet below us 
the loveliest of green valleys, which looks like a mighty picture 
by some giant artist set in a frame of great mountains. The 
view from the Chateau is one of those which only the Alps 
can give and which will linger forever in the memory. 

Descending a steep path through the wooded hillside we soon 
come to a little hut from which a short excursion can be made 
to the end of the glacier and the ice grotto from -which the 
stream under it flows. This grotto has been enlarged by the 
guides so that it can be ascended some two hundred feet, and 
here one is within the very glacier itself. As we had been in 
the grotto of the Grindelwald glacier on our former trip we 



90 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

had no curiosity to again enter one of nature's vast ice houses. 

Coming down to the level of the valley we cross it and 
begin to follow the winding path which leads up the face of 
the steep mountain on the opposite side. After three hours 
of hard climbing we reach the little hotel on Mt. Flegere, 
which is also 6,000 feet above the sea, from which if we are 
favored with a clear day we can see the entire Mt. Blanc range 
and Mt. Blanc itself with its vast snow fields from base to 
summit. 

All the morning the greater part of the mountain tops had 
been covered with clouds, but by the time we reached the 
hotel on Mt. Flegere late in the afternoon the clouds had 
broken away and we had an unobstructed view of the lofty 
snow white dome of Mt. Blanc, glittering in the full rays of 
the setting sun. Before us was a view which the wildest nights 
of our imagination had never conceived. Within sight were 
literally " Alps piled upon Alps," for we could see at once 
thirteen mountain peaks, the lowest of which is two miles 
high, and in the midst, reaching up into the heavens until we 
can hardly distinguish it from the clouds, towers Mt. Blanc, 
the monarch of European mountains, three miles high. These 
mountains are mostly of granite and several of the peaks run 
up almost as pointed as cathedral spires, so much so that they 
are called needles. 

We could almost look down upon the Mer de Glace oppo- 
site us, and within sight we counted nine great glaciers which 
reached down into the valley and as many smaller ones, 
which came only part way down the mountain slopes. In the 
foreground and more than a half a mile below us lies the 
green valley of Chamouni and its little village, with the road 



MONT BLANC. 91 

and the stream winding through the green fields, so far away 
that they look almost like ribbons. At times parts of the 
mountain range, or the summits of the mountains would be cov- 
ered with clouds, and occasionally the dome of Mt. Blanc, 
bright with sunlight, would appear above the clouds. After 
enjoying the wonderful view for more than an hour we de- 
scend and reach our hotel at six o'clock. 

During the day we have made on foot twe?ity-07ie miles of 
mountain traveling, having climbed two peaks, each 6,000 feet 
high. The reader can get some idea of what it is to lift one's 
body up these two mountains, by thinking of going up a pair 
of stairs 15,000 steps high, or going up and down a pair of 
ordinary house stairs about 800 times in one day. It was the 
hardest day's work I had done in many a year. 

There are six rival lines of stages from Chamouni to Gene- 
va, a distance of fifty miles, and so sharp is the competition 
between them that the fare to Geneva had fallen from twenty- 
five to three francs. These great coaches are each drawn by 
from three to six horses, and make the distance down in six 
hours. Much of the way the road is cut through rocks, and 
walled up on the outer side. I think I never saw so fine a 
carriage road, or one with such a good road bed and grade. 
And indeed the fine roads over nearly all Europe are a won- 
der to Americans. Most of them are graded almost as care- 
fully as railroads and the wagon track is covered with broken 
stone. 

The upper part of the road is through a rough country, but 
the ten miles nearest Geneva is in a rich and well cultivated 
region. I should remember this ride as one of the pleasantest 
of my trip if it were not that a " native " smoking a " long 



92 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

nine " made of the most villainous tobacco which ever grew, 
sat on the seat in front of me and gave me most of the way 
his wretched second-hand tobacco smoke. All over the con- 
tinent almost every man smokes and drinks beer or wine, and 
the presence of ladies is not considered a restraint to either. 

Geneva, which is beautifully situated at the foot of the lake, 
is one of the most important cities in Switzerland, and con- 
tains more foreign residents than any other. It is mentioned 
by Caesar in the first book of his Gallic War, and from that time 
has been a place of importance. It has a large number of 
watch and jewelry establishments, and extensively manufac- 
tures music boxes, and carved work. On a clear day one can 
get a fine view of Mt. Blanc from the quay in front of the 
Hotel de Russie. In Geneva and along the lake there are a 
large number of English hotels and ladies' boarding schools. 
On our former visit we attended Pere Hyacinth's church, 
but some one else conducted the service. We, however, saw 
him and his American wife as they left the church. 

While in Geneva I was awakened very early one morning 
by an unearthly noise under my window. My first impres- 
sion was that half a dozen full brass bands had come to give 
me a serenade, but on looking out I could see only a market 
woman with a little wagon and a donkey about the size of a 
four weeks old calf. The woman seemed to be reasoning 
with the animal and enforcing her arguments with frequent 
slaps on his long ears. He was sustaining his side of the 
discussion in that way in which only a donkey can, and which 
cannot be equalled or imitated by anything in this world, and 
it was his vigorous presentation of his view of the question 
which awakened me. 



GENOA AND PISA. 93 

When I looked at the insignificant little animal and heard 
the fearful noise he made, which seemed to fill the air for miles 
around, it seemed astonishing that such wonderful vocal pow- 
ers could be wrapped up in so small a brown skin, and the 
longer his powerful argument continued the more my wonder 
grew, and to this day I cannot hear a donkey address an au- 
dience or speak to a friend a couple of miles away without 
being filled with awe at the wonderful manner in which he 
seems to be constructed. Until I heard this Geneva donkey 
I never half realized what must have been the interview be- 
tween Balaam and the beast on which he rode, or what was 
signified when "the ass opened his mouth and spake." 

We will bring this long chapter to a close by asking our read- 
ers to get a through ticket via Mt. Cenis tunnel for Naples, 800 
miles away, to which we go next with only brief stops at Genoa 
and Pisa. 



CHAPTER XII. 
GENOA AND PISA. 



LEAVING Geneva by an early morning train we soon pass 
out of Switzerland into a corner of France, and going by 
way of Culoz and Chambery, through a country constantly 
growing more rugged, we at last reach the celebrated Mt. 
Cenis tunnel, on the border of Italy. This tunnel is about 
eight and one-half miles in length, nearly twice as long as any 



94 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

other completed tunnel, and lies almost on the direct line 
passing through London, Paris, Geneva, Turin, Genoa, Rome 
and Naples. The passage of the tunnel, which takes the train 
about half an hour, reminds one of nothing so vividly as going 
through a long black hole, and we are all thankful for having 
once more reached the open air, where we are free from the 
stifling smoke with which the engine fills the tunnel. After 
having passed through it four times we most decidedly prefer 
any eight miles of surface road which fortune has ever thus 
far thrown in our way. Just after passing this we are obliged 
to submit to another of those frequent overhaulings of our 
luggage which are such an annoyance to the independent 
American, but which fortunately are generally a mere matter 
of form. By far the worst usage of this kind we receive any 
where, is the one our own country gives us when we get back 
to New York. 

The train now descends rapidly, and in an hour or two we 
are at the foot of the mountains, on our way across the fertile 
plain of Piedmont to the beautiful city of Turin, where for 
the present we remain only long enough to change trains for 
Genoa. As we leave Alessandria, we look out into the moon- 
light, for a sight of the village of Marengo, made memorable 
by the celebrated battle of Napoleon I., but a confused vision 
of trees and vineyards hurrying swiftly by is all that rewards 
our curiosity. 

In two hours more we are in the city of Genoa, which is 
finely situated on the Mediterranean, and has been celebrated 
from all time for its excellent sea-port. It was famous in the 
middle ages and the modern city is by no means insignificant. 
While it has many churches, palaces and galleries, it has none 



GENOA AND PISA. 95 

of special importance to a casual visitor, but many which are 
well worthy the attention of the art critic who has time at his 
disposal. It is associated in the American minds chiefly as the 
home of Columbus, and the traveler is shown his palace and 
two statues of him, one of them very fine. Of course, being 
Americans, we are supposed to be wonderfully interested in 
Columbus, and we are stuffed with all kinds of information 
about him, among other things that he was the man who 
" discovered America." 

Many who read this will recall the admirable article on the 
celebrated Bank of St. George, which appeared in one of our 
leading magazines a few months ago. This was one of the earliest 
and most famous banks in Europe and came near absorbing the 
entire Republic of Genoa. The view of the sea from the higher 
part of the city is very fine, and the city must present a beautiful 
sight to one approaching it from the bay, as it is built on ground 
which rises as it recedes from the shore. There are improve- 
ments commenced now, by the liberality of one of her wealthy 
citizens, which, when completed, will make her harbor one of the 
best on the Mediterranean, and which her inhabitants fondly 
hope will restore some of her former commercial prosperity. 

Every one can recall the picture of the Leaning Tower of 
Pisa which used to be in all the geographies, and I can well 
remember that I thought there was something supernatural 
about it that kept it in this position right in the very face of 
nature's law, and when I climbed its one hundred and eighty 
feet and looked over the side and saw myself hanging in the 
air thirteen feet outside the base, the supernatural impres- 
sion was not in the least removed. At the first glance you 
cannot get rid of the impression that the tower has commenced 



96 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

tipping over. It is supposed that after the structure was 
commenced one side settled, and that in finishing it care was 
taken to make the lower side the lighter, so that the center of 
gravity of the whole mass might not fall outside the base. 
Galileo used this slanting tower in his experiments in de- 
termining the laws of gravitation. 

The Baptistry of the Cathedral is a circular building, and is 
celebrated for its marvelously beautiful echo. The attendant 
sounds the four notes, do, mi, sol, do, and the whole dome seems 
to fill with echoes and re-echoes, and before they have died 
away he repeats the notes, and the two echo-choruses are 
heard blending and combining for nearly a minute. 

Near this is the Burial Ground, a quaint inclosed structure 
remarkable from the fact that after the loss of the Holy Land 
the archbishop had fifty-three ship loads of earth from Mt. 
Calvary conveyed here, in order that the dead might rest in 
holy ground. There are many other things of interest in this 
old, decaying city, but we must leave them and hasten on 
our way toward Rome. 

For half a day we skirt its coast, most of the time in full 
view of the sea. We pass in plain sight of the island of Elba, 
and perhaps see the dim outlines of Corsica in the far distance. 
Most of the way, particularly as we near Rome, the country is 
dreary and unproductive, and we see little but the stubble of 
the wheat fields, and here and there peasants plowing with 
strange shaped plows at least ten feet long. The country 
seems to be burned up with the sun, and one may ride miles 
without seeing what we would call a grove of trees. The 
policy inaugurated centuries ago of cutting away all the trees 
has reduced some of the finest parts of Italy to a waste. As 



GENOA AND PISA. 97 

an instance of what a strange mingling of ancient and modern 
we find in Italy, on a former visit to this region, at the time of 
the wheat harvest, we saw in one place wheat being threshed 
out by cattle on a threshing floor in the open field, just as de- 
scribed in Bible times, and not more that a mile from this 
place, on a large estate, a steam threshing machine was in 
full operation. In this way all over the Peninsula, old and new 
Italy are struggling for the mastery. At the little restaurants 
along the railway wine is plenty and cheap, but there is little 
one can get to eat, and little he can eat of what he can get. 
A bright-eyed girl tempted me with a small black biscuit, such 
as I saw some of the Italians eating, but after struggling with 
it a while until the permanent location of several of my front 
teeth had been seriously threatened, I made it over to a little 
dog, which went at it in about the same way he would manage 
a bone. The leading idea of a small restaurant seems to be 
everything to drink, nothing to eat. 

As we near Rome we have occasional glimpses of ruins, and 
finally after skirting the walls for some distance pass through 
them and are in the city. Changing cars we are soon away 
for Naples, this time leaving the coast and not coming in sight 
of the sea at all. 

Our way is through a more fertile country than lies north of 
Rome, and through places familiar to every classical student. 
Cities which have a large place in history are now represented 
by wretched little villages, while others are entirely gone, their 
very localities even being a matter of doubt. At the village 
of Capua, once a great city, the second in size in all Italy, the 
splendid army of the victorious Hannibal wintered after the 
disastrous battle of Cannae, instead of marching directly to 



98 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

Rome, and Rome and not Carthage became mistress of the 
world. Here also were the great gladiatorial schools, and here 
broke out the insurrection of the gladiators under Spartacus 
which for a time threatened the supremacy of Rome. The 
speech of Spartacus to the gladiators, so dear to every school 
boy's heart, came back to me, and I looked about for some 
gladiator with short sword, helmet and shield, but saw only a 
full rigged Italian officer strutting about the depot. 

A little later, while the beauty of a lovely Italian summer 
day yet hung upon the vineyards and orange groves of this 
almost tropical climate, we reached Naples, the light of Italy, 
its largest city, and the paradise of travelers. 



CHAPTER XIII. 
NAPLES. 



AN our long ride along the quay to our hotel we realize that 
\j we are indeed in a strange city and in the midst of a people 
and productions different from any we have before known. 
In the markets, which seem to be only pieces of canvass to 
keep off the sun, were peaches, grapes, oranges, lemons, aloes 
and nectarines from Sorrento just across the Bay, pomegran- 
ates, olives, figs, and several other fruits of which even the 
names are unknown to us. Bare-footed men and women, and 
half dressed or entirely nude children are to be seen every- 
where. In the two miles along the quay an artist could pick 



NAPLES. 



99 



out a dozen " Neapolitan Fisher Boys," while men clothed 
only in two garments stretch out at full length upon the stone 
pavements and sleep. 

All kinds of work are carried on in the street in front of the 
houses. Barbers, shoemakers, harness makers and clothes 
dealers often have everything out on the sidewalk. Women 
cook, wash and iron, care for their babies, "sew, knit, smoke 
and do all kinds of household work on the streets. Two or 
three times we even saw them going through their children's 
heads and hunting game with a fine toothed comb. In places 
there were large yards in which strips of macaroni ten feet 
long, hanging over poles, were drying in the open air, exposed 
to whatever of dirt the breezes of heaven might bring them 
from the street. 

Every thing about us shows that we are among a strange 
kind of people, and in a southern climate. The narrow 
streets, and high houses with a balcony in front of each win- 
dow, the braying of the omnipresent donkey, the ceaseless clat- 
ter of wheels and snapping of whips, the harsh screaming of 
the peddlers, the undaunted impudence of beggars, guides and 
carriage drivers, all combine to give the traveler something 
new at every turn. 

The national characteristic of the inhabitants of Naples, as 
far as they have any, has always been and is now, a love of 
the enjoyment of the present and an entire disregard of the 
wants of the future. Of all the Italians the Neapolitans are 
the happiest and the poorest, the laziest and dirtiest, and the 
least given to mourning the misfortunes of the past, or worry- 
ing over the wants of the future. The bare legged lazzaroni 
with empty stomachs and not a single soldo in their pockets or 



IOO TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

any prospect of getting one, will curl up in some warm cor- 
ner and go to sleep as contentedly as though they were mil- 
lionaires. 

Probably no finer or more varied view is to be had in all 
Italy than from the Carmadoli, a former monastery, on a lofty 
hill at the back of the city. It includes all of the matchless 
Bay of Naples with its numerous islands whose wonderful 
beauty has been praised for nearly three thousand years ; much 
of the city below ; on the left Mt. Vesuvius with its vine 
covered base, and miles of fertile plain dotted with numerous 
villages; while in the opposite direction stretches the open sea. 
The wonderful beauty of the situation and its surroundings 
has given rise to the Italian saying, " Verdi Napoli e poi ' mori '/" 
''See Naples and die." 

Our first visit is to the Museum, which is particularly rich in 
mementos from the buried city of Pompeii, and there is no 
other place where so good an idea can be obtained of the 
home life of the Romans, as from a careful study of the many 
articles which are here preserved. Among these are various 
household and domestic articles, many of which are of similar 
shape to those in use with us. There was a plane which a 
modern carpenter would handle with ease. I do not know 
how many articles there are in all but I saw one numbered 
10,878. A great many statues, bronzes and vases, in a more 
or less perfect state have been exhumed. One room contains 
grain of various kinds, bread, meat and some eggs which 
came from the buried city. These are all charred and would 
not be recognized except by their form. There is also a glass 
bottle filled with oil, which is in a good condition and not 
dried up. 



NAPLES. TOI 

One of the most interesting rooms to me contains the Libra- 
ry of the Papyri, which was discovered in a villa near Hercula- 
neum. These rolls are completely encrusted with ashes, and 
they were supposed for a long time to be valueless. Originally 
there were 3,000 of them, but only 1,800 are now preserved. 
They are charred and are as black as a coal. The inner bark 
of the papyrus plant was pasted together forming a long roll, 
and on this the writing was done with the stylus. It was for 
a long time thought impossible to unroll them, but at length 
an ingenious machine was made by which they are carefully 
unrolled after being moistened. Two or three of these were 
at work at the time of our visit. Several hundred papyri have 
been unrolled and read, but they are mostly of little value. 
There are also human figures encrusted with ashes, which 
were found in various places in the buried city. 

In the afternoon we go by train a ride of forty minutes to 
Pompeii, where we at once engage a guide for the visit to the 
buried city. — Pompeii was destroyed during the great eruption 
of 79, by a cloud of hot ashes, and by subsequent falls of 
volcanic matter, until at present it is covered with a deposit 
twenty feet in thickness. For three hundred years after its 
destruction the ruins were dug into and ransacked for marble 
and other treasures, until it was supposed that everything of 
value had been removed. For the next 1400 years, the buried 
city was neglected and almost forgotten. 

A little more than a hundred years ago excavations were 
again commenced, but it is only within the last twenty years, 
since they have been taken in hand by the government, that 
they have been conducted in a systematic manner and anything 
like satisfactory results obtained. Every thing which can be 



102 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

readily moved, and even the more important frescoes, as soon 
as found, are taken to the Museum at Naples. An area of 
about sixty-eight acres has already been excavated, which is 
supposed to include the most important third of the city. If 
the work is continued at the same rate as now, it will take 
about seventy years to complete it and will cost $1,000,000. 

The streets are regularly laid out, the main ones twenty-four 
feet wide, the narrower ones fourteen feet only. They were 
originally well paved with large square blocks of lava, which 
have been worn into deep ruts by wagon wheels. At the 
corners of the streets are stepping stones projecting nearly a 
foot above the pavement for the convenience of pedestrians 
in muddy weather, and at the same places there are often 
remains of fountains, or notices painted in real letters gener- 
ally relating to municipal affairs. The houses are mostly built 
of concrete, and covered with a coating of marble or plaster, 
which was ornamented with paintings in bright colors, red 
being particularly noticeable. Most of the houses have stair- 
ways showing that they were more than one story high, and 
one of them has a charred second story remaining which .was 
built of wood and projected over the street. 

The shops which were small were open on the street the 
whole width of the front and closed at night with wooden 
shutters. The private houses, particularly those of the wealthy, 
were built around an open court, and had only solid wall on the 
outside, with a single entrance from the street. As these walls 
were built up to the line of the street, and had almost no 
windows, a walk through a street occupied entirely with res- 
idences must have been a dismal affair. 

Within, the rooms of the houses generally opened into some 



NAPLES. IO3 

court, which was an uncovered square, containing a fountain 
or flower garden. All the walls were brilliantly painted 
and the floors frequently inlaid with mosaics. With the 
bronze ornaments and statuary, and the inlaid furniture these 
houses must have been cheerful and very pleasant. It was 
with mingled awe and pleasure that we wandered amid these 
remains of the every day life of the Romans, and nothing we 
have ever seen except the ruins at Rome has ever impressed 
us so vividly with the reality of those ancient times. 

As we study them carefully in connection with the museums 
both here and at Naples, and see the implements of their 
every day life and labor, we lose something of the poetical 
idea of the grim Roman who was always standing cold and 
merciless in full armor with drawn sword, and learn to look 
upon them as men of like passions and occupations as our- 
selves, and the romance of those old heroic times dwindles 
away into the real bread and butter occupations of our modern, 
hum-drum life. 

Late one rainy morning our party left the hotel in carriages 
for the ascent of Vesuvius by the way of Resina. A ride of 
considerably more than an hour, all the way along a built up 
street, brings us to Resina, where we engage a guide and mules. 
The carriage way winds up the side of the mountain, through 
vineyards and highly cultivated fields until it comes to the 
overflow of 1872, over which for nearly an hour the road winds 
until the Hermitage is reached, which is the limit of carriage 
travel. This lava stream is black and lies in great waves and 
ridges, such as would be formed by a semi-fluid mass rolling 
down the mountain, stiffening as it cooled. It is the ideal of 
desolation itself, not a green thing being able to live upon it. 



104 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

From the Hermitage one can go by foot or by mule over a 
rough path to the base of the cone, which is reached in about 
an hour. This rises 1,500 feet, and the ascent can only be 
made on foot. As the cone rises at an angle of about thirty- 
five degrees, and consists of slag and loose ashes which slip 
back under the feet at every step, the climb is most fatiguing. 
The traveler is beset with men who offer their services and 
will help unless they are absolutely and energetically repulsed. 
Some go just ahead and extend a strap to the traveler by which 
he can be partly pulled up, while others get behind and 
"boost," and by these combined means even the weakest 
finally reach the top. 

From the edge of the crater is a magnificent panorama. Be- 
fore us we see the country for miles around, the bay, the city 
and far out at sea, while turning around we look down into 
the smoking pit, some two hundred feet below us. Clamber- 
ing down the hot, steaming sides we are at last at the very 
mouth of the crater, and to all appearances at the entrance to 
the infernal regions. The night before our ascent, the first 
display of the present season of activity had taken place and 
the sky was lighted up with flames from the burning mountain. 

We found that there had been a small overflow during the 
night, and that some two acres of the bottom of the inner 
crater had been covered with lava, which by the time we 
reached it had a cool crust an inch or more thick on which we 
could walk with care. Through the cracks in it we could see 
the red hot mass not two inches under our feet. The guides 
cooked eggs in these cracks, and pressed coins in the melted 
lava which were drawn out with part of the cooled lava at- 
tached to them. We could hear the melted mass in the interior 



NAPLES. I05 

of the mountain surge from side to side as it boiled, and as 
often as once a minute melted lava would be thrown into the 
air through the little cone in the inner crater, and fall near us. 
The air was full of sulphur fumes, which were at times so 
oppressive that we could hardly breathe. Great masses of pure 
sulphur were scattered all around us. 

At the end of half an hour we were glad to clamber up the 
side of the crater, out of the "jaws of hell," and with another 
long look at the grand view before us, we scrambled down the 
steep side of the cone and returned to the city. After this 
we shall have all faith in the power of Vesuvius, and when we 
read that during an eruption it threw a stone weighing twenty- 
five tons a distance of fifteen miles, we shall shut our eyes and 
swallow the statement without a word of dissent. 

After another visit to the Museum, and to some parts of the 
city not mentioned in this letter, with regret we take the train 
for Rome. We shall never forget how as we rode for miles 
along the ruined arches of the aqueduct, while we were enter- 
ing Rome, the full moon just rising flashed through the arches 
which seemed to fly past us. With this vision of moonlight 
on the Campagna, amid the ruins of the greatest nation and 
city the world has ever seen we retire for the night and in the 
morning will ask our readers to begin with us the study of the 
ruins of the " Eternal City." 



106 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

ROME. 

» 

TO see Rome well takes months, and to write of it is a matter 
of volumes, not of a few pages, and so we can hope only to 
glance at some of the most striking features and record gen- 
eral impressions. 

Following our own inclinations, as well as the custom of 
travelers, we go at once to St. Peter's, crossing the Tiber di- 
rectly opposite the castle of St. Angelo, on a massive stone 
bridge of five arches, built by the Emperor Hadrian, more 
than 1700 years ago. We were sadly disappointed in the 
Tiber. When we recalled all we had read of this grandly 
historic river, the pride of the ancient Roman, we were hardly 
prepared to see a small, muddy, common-place sort of a stream, 
creeping along at a snail's pace toward the ocean. Macau- 
lay's " Horatius at the Bridge " has lost much of its charm for 
us now, and is more than ever a poem of the imagination. 

The castle was originally a huge cylindrical structure cov- 
ered with marble, on which a colossal statue of Hadrian was 
placed. This was built by him for a tomb, and contained the 
family cinerary urns. It was converted into a fortress as 
early as when the Goths besieged Rome, and the beautiful 
statues which adorned its summit were hurled down upon the 
heads of the invaders. At present it is used as a fort and is 
connected with the Vatican by an underground passage nearly 
three-fourths of a mile long. 



ROME. I07 

The approach to St. Peter's with its great elliptical colon- 
ades, is grand and impressive beyond description, and forms 
a most striking introduction to the largest church in the world. 
In the center of the large open space in front of the church is 
the great obelisk which was brought to Rome by the mad Em- 
peror Caligula and set up in the Circus of Nero. The church 
itself is reputed to have been founded by the Emperor Con- 
stantine on the spot where St. Peter suffered martyrdom, and 
contains the brazen sarcophagus of that Apostle. 

The present building, which was planned by the great Michael 
Angelo, and has cost more than $50,000,000, was dedicated ex- 
actly 1300 years later than the first structure. It is the largest 
but not the most beautiful church in the world. Some idea of 
its size may be gained from the fact that it covers more than 
three acres of ground, is 650 feet long, 209 wide, 465 high, 
and has 290 windows, 390 statues, 46 altars and 748 columns. 
Large as it is, its gigantic dome is three feet less in diameter 
than that of the Pantheon, which was built 27 B. C. and is yet 
standing in perfect repair, while three buildings just like it 
could be placed within the outer wall of the Colosseum. In 
the dome are mosaics of heroic size, of the four Evangelists. 
St. Luke is writing with a pen seven feet long, yet from the 
pavement it looks only about the size of a full grown lead 
pencil. 

At the base of one of the pillars is the famous sitting statue 
of St. Peter, in bronze, whose great toe has been worn away by 
contact with the lips of devotees. The statue is said to have 
originally been one of Jupiter, and was taken from a heathen 
temple and dedicated to St. Peter. 

In the center' of the cross beneath the dome, rises the beau- 



Io8 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

tiful and costly canopy under which, and immediately over 
the tomb of St. Peter is the altar from which the Pope only 
reads mass on high festive occasions. Beneath this and reach- 
ed by a double flight of marble stairs is the vault which con- 
tains the sarcophagus of the Apostle. 

The remains of Pius IX. had recently been placed in the 
Popes' niche in the wall of the church where the bodies of all 
the Popes are placed temporarily. We can only add that the 
longer one wanders through this great cathedral and exam- 
ines it in detail, the more the impression of its vastness grows 
upon him. 

Probably there is no place in Europe where centers so much 
of interest as upon the little parallelogram, less than a thou- 
sand feet in greatest dimensions, known as the Roman Forum. 
Around us on every side we see ruins of temples, public build- 
ings and triumphal arches. Here are three columns where 
was once the magnificent temple of Castor and Pollux, near 
it the foundation of the temple of the Deified Julius erected 
on the spot where Caesar's body was cremated by the populace 
after the funeral oration by Mark Anthony, which is so graph- 
ically described in Shakespeare's u Julius Caesar." 

There are identified remains of the temple of Vespasian, the 
Tabularium, or great Record Office of ancient Rome, the tem- 
ple of Saturn, the old Rostrum from which orators addressed 
the people and at one end of which was the central milestone 
of the Roman Empire, and a shapeless mass of concrete, all 
that remains of the famous temple of Vesta, founded by one of 
the earliest kings of Rome. On the Forum are also the re- 
mains of the great building erected by Julius in which the 
public business was transacted. In the marble floor of the 



ROME. IO9 

portico and in the steps, figures and holes are cut in which the 
boys of Rome played games. 

An excavation has been made below the ancient level of the 
Forum, and in one place the Cloaca Maxima is seen, which was 
built 2500 years ago to drain the low land back of the Forum, 
and which is perfect and in use now. Through the midst of 
the Forum can be seen the Via Sacra, the street along which 
victorious generals entered the city in triumph and ascended 
the Capitoline hill just beyond. Many of the great stone.s 
with which it was paved are yet in position, showing deep ruts 
worn by the wheels of passing carts. 

On the Capitoline hill was the Senate building and on the 
Tarpeian Rock the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. Here was 
also a temple of Minerva. The Museum contains a large 
number of statues and antiquities, among others the Bronze 
Wolf believed to be the one mentioned by Cicero as having 
been struck by lightning, the celebrated Venus of the Capitol, 
an ancient copy of the Faun of Praxiteles, the statue which is 
the hero of Hawthorne's story of " The Marble Faun," and 
the wonderfully life-like figure of " The Dying Gladiator," 
which Byron so beautifully describes in the lines beginning, 

" I see before me the Gladiator lie, 

He leans upon his hand — his manly brow 

Consents to death, but conquers agony, 

And his droop'd head sinks gradually low." 

Adjoining the Forum on the other side is the Palatine hill 
which was the site of most ancient Rome, and around which 
as a center the whole of the historic city seems to cluster. 
Tradition places on this hill the dwellings of the early Roman 
heroes Evander and Romulus, and here at a later date resided 



IIO TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

many men celebrated in Roman history, the Gracchi, Cicero, 
Cataline and Mark Anthony. The Emperors finally obtained 
possession of the whole of it and covered it with one immense 
palace whose vast ruins present a most imposing appearance 
even at the present day. 

The Palatine retained its magnificence many hundred years, 
but was finally given over to ruin, until in 1861 Napoleon III. 
purchased a portion of it and commenced excavations for the 
purpose of obtaining material for his great work " The Life of 
Caesar." At this time all that was visible of the magnificent 
structure of the palace of the Caesars, which at one time cov- 
ered the whole of the hill, no less than sixty-two acres, were 
some picturesque fragments of ivy-clad walls, jutting up here 
and there from among the vines and vegetables and at two 
corners great masses of unrecognized ruins. The excavations 
which have been continued to the present time, have given us 
a good idea of the construction and arrangement of a grand 
Roman house. A more particular description would be in- 
teresting but we can only say that everything indicates a lux- 
ury and civilization which we do not generally ascribe to the 
ancients. 

In one of the open courts of the palace is a shapeless mass 
of concrete which is the scanty remains of the Temple of 
Jupiter Stator, founded by Romulus on the spot where the 
tide of battle turned against the Sabines. It was in this 
temple that Cicero convened the Senate on the discovery of 
the great conspiracy against the Republic, and where out of 
all patience when he saw Cataline walk deliberately in with 
the other Senators, he arose and broke out with that incom- 



ROME. 



parable and terrible vindictive beginning, "Quo usque tandem 
abuiere, Catalina, patientia nostra ?" 

In the underground stories are cellars with wine jugs about 
the size of the arm, sharp at the bottom, and some three feet 
long. They were made of baked clay, the material looking 
about like unglazed yellow or brown flower pots. In these 
chambers are frescoes with the painting yet bright. The 
bricks of which the inner walls of Roman buildings were con- 
structed are about ten inches square and not more than one 
in thickness, and were often stamped with the name of the 
emperor in whose reign they were made. 

The walls of one room which had evidently baen used as a 
school room for the slaves of the palace, were scratched and 
marked similar to some of our modern school houses. In one 
place is the figure of a Roman soldier, in another a rude sketch 
of a mill driven by an ass, under which is the inscription, 
"Labor like an ass as I have done and it will drag you down." 
One of these rude scrawls seems to record the joy of some 
boy over the dismission of an unpopular teacher, for it reads, 
"Corinthus exit de paedagogio," which might be freely translated. 
"Corinthus has been kicked out of the school room." In this 
room also was found the celebrated caricature of the Christians 
which represents a man with the head of an ass hanging to a 
cross, with two men being crucified one on each side of him, 
and underneath is the inscription in Greek, " Alexamenos 
worships this God," which was evidently intended to ridicule 
some pupil of the Christian faith. 

In one place the excavations have brought to light parts of 
the wall built by Romulus around the Palatine, in the time 
when Rome was only a fort, and this the only hill occupied. 



112 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

It is constructed of large blocks of hard tufa put together 
without mortar, and so closely fitted that a knife-blade can 
scarcely be put between the joints, and is as solid now as 
when built 750 years before Christ. Adjoining this is the 
grotto supposed to be the cave in which the she-wolf nourished 
the twins, Romulus and Remus. Standing at the entrance to 
this grotto and near this old historic wall, we seem to be 
almost able to look into the land and times of fable, and to 
reach back and grasp the mythical and unknown past. 

Not far from the Forum along the Appian way we come to 
the Colosseum, the grandest and best known of all the ruins 
of Rome, and which is all and even more to the traveler than 
can ever be described. Its massiveness has ever been a symbol 
of the greatness of Rome and gave rise among the Anglo- 
Saxon pilgrims of the 8th century to the saying : 

" While stands the Colosseum, Rome shall stand ; 
When falls the Colosseum, Rome shall fall ; 
And when Rome falls — the World." 

Near it are the beautiful arch of Constantine, and the basis 
on which stood the magnificent gilded statue, 120 feet high, of 
Nero as god of the Sun. 

There are many places in Rome associated, in tradition at 
least, with one or more of the apostles. We visit the three 
small, low, arched rooms some ten feet below the surface 
of the modern city, in what is certainly known to be the 
hired house in which St. Paul dwelt while in Rome. The old 
Etruscan prison is shown us in which it is said St. Peter and 
St. Paul were confined. In this prison we are shown the im- 
pression of a human face in the hard rock, and are told that 



ROME. II3 

when Peter was being led down into this prison, the jailor 
cruelly pushed his head against the wall and that this miracu- 
lous impression of his face was thus made. In the lower prison 
we are shown the post to which Peter was chained, and the well 
or spring which had a miraculous origin, furnishing the water 
with which Peter baptized the jailor and forty other converts. 
We drank of it from a very old tin cup, which looked vener- 
able enough to have had its origin at the same time as the 
spring. Into this dark, damp dungeon, Cataline's conspirators 
were thrown after the discovery of their crime, and into this 
same fearful place, Jugurtha, after being led before the 
triumphal car of Marius, was hurled naked, and being left 
without food, miserably perished at the end of six days. As 
the dampness and cold penetrated to our very bones, I could 
realize the appropriateness of the exclamation which Tacitus 
says fell from Jugurtha's lips when he was dropped into 
this dungeon ; "Gods ! how cold your bath is." 

Among the most interesting of the ruins of the ancient city 
are those of the bathing establishments, founded by the differ- 
ent Emperors for the free use of the people of Rome. Passing 
under the Arch of Constantine, one of the most perfectly pre- 
served relics of former times, and along the celebrated Appian 
Way, a drive of half an hour brings us to the Thermae, or 
Baths, built by Caracalla. These ruins which are pretty well 
preserved, cover, in all, many acres and give substantial evi- 
dence of what the building must have been when completed, 
nearly 1700 years ago. In many places the side walls are 
standing, and in one or two, the arches of the roof which was 
of solid masonry. The entire structure was in the form of a 
quadrangle, and surrounded by a colonade and porticos. A 



114 TW0 MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

broad walk extended around the building; outside of this 
there was a course for chariot races, and beyond this large 
pleasure grounds. 

The Roman bath consisted of three parts or courses; first, 
the hot air bath, then the hot water bath, and finally the cold 
water or swimming bath. The uses of the different rooms, 
and the adaptation of each to its special use, can even yet be 
easily distinguished. The rooms for the hot air and hot water 
baths were heated from pipes placed in the floor and walls. 
The openings through which these pipes passed, and in one or 
two instances pieces of the pipes in them can be seen. The 
shape and size of several of the large marble bath tubs with 
their abundance of pipes for warm and cold water, for hot air 
and waste water, are yet to be seen, and one even has a 
portion of the original marble lining. The last bath, the cold 
water swimming bath, was an immense marble tank eighty feet 
long, in which the bathers, after passing through the other 
two, plunged and swam from side to side. A branch aqueduct 
was built for the sole purpose of supplying these great baths 
with water. There were also separate suites of rooms with all 
necessary conveniences for women. 

Besides those mentioned there were reading rooms, libraries, 
rooms for various kinds of amusements and for other purposes. 
The brick and concrete walls were covered without and within 
with beautiful stone brought from Egypt, and the whole build- 
ing was ornamented with statuary, some of which is preserved 
in the various museums in the city. The floors were of mosaic 
and in some of the rooms are yet nearly perfect. The whole 
building was on such an immense scale that 1600 bathers 
could be accommodated in it at once. If these baths could be 



ROME. 115 

restored as they were when completed and placed in any of 
our cities, they would be considered marvels not only of 
beauty and elegance, but also of ingenuity and convenience, 
and would be one of the wonders of the city in which they 
might be located. We were shown the spot, high up in a 
corner of the ruined wall, where Shelley was accustomed to 
sit for hours at a time, and where he wrote, " Pometheus 
Unbound." 

Two or three miles beyond this, along the Appian Way, is 
the church of St. Sebastian, which stands over one of the 
best known catacombs about the city. The road leads for the 
most part through -the low grounds of the Campagnia, much of 
the time between high walls built almost entirely from the 
plundered ruins of the ancient city. It strikes us strangely 
to see every few feet among the brick and stone of which the 
walls are built, the gleam of a piece of beautiful white marble, 
and we grow indignant at that vandalism which can pull down 
a marble palace to build a wall around a corn field. 

On the way we pass a small chapel, on the very spot, as the 
legend has it, where Christ met Peter as he was fleeing from 
the city by night to escape martyrdom. When Peter inquired 
of him, "Dowine, quo vadisV " Master, whither goest thou?" 
and received the answer, " I come to be again crucified," 
shamed from his weakness by this reply, he returned to the 
city to his prison, and the next da) was crucified with his head 
downward. This little chapel is called from this incident, the 
church of " Domine quo Vadis." 

Each one of our party having been given a small wax candle, 
we go down through the pavement of the church into the 



n6 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

catacombs, and in a moment are in the vast and silent city 
of the dead. The passages are damp and narrow, with shelves 
or niches on each side for the reception of the bodies of the 
dead. These niches which are cut into the soft tufa rock, are 
in two rows, one above the other. When a body was placed 
in one of them, a marble slab was put over the opening and 
sealed in. The slab was inscribed with the name of the dead, 
and sometimes a brief motto, as " in pace" or something sim- 
ilar in character. But few of those we saw contained bones 
of their occupants, although in the few minutes we were taking 
our dismal walk we must have passed the resting places of many 
hundred bodies. The passages which are only wide enough 
for one person at a time, branch off in every direction, so that 
it would be an easy matter for a person to become lost in the 
catacombs. We felt an involuntary sense of relief when we 
were once more above ground and in the sunlight, which for 
a few minutes seemed strangely bright. 

The Pantheon is the only entirely preserved ancient build- 
ing in Rome. It was erected in the year 27 B. C, and is 
supposed to have been at first intended as an appendage to 
the Baths of Agrippa, the ruins of which are in the rear of the 
Pantheon. Mention has already been made that the vault of 
this building, which is made of concrete, is one of the largest 
in the world. The building is circular and lighted only from 
a circular opening in the dome twenty-eight feet in diameter. 
The material of the walls is concrete and brick, and they were 
originally covered with stucco and marble. The level, both 
of the streets and the bed of the Tiber has risen so much 
during 1800 years that the floor of the Pantheon is now several 
feet below the surface of the street, and is flooded by the river 



ROME. 117 

at high water. The illumination, entirely from the dome, pro- 
duces such a beautiful effect, that even in ancient times it gave 
rise to the belief that the temple took its name, Pantheon, 
from its resemblance to the vault of heaven. 

About the year 600, it was consecrated as a Christian Church, 
in the commemoration of which event we have the festival of 
All Saints, on the first day of November. This act has prob- 
ably been the means of preserving it from the hands of the 
destroyers who waged such relentless and cowardly war against 
the gigantic work of their ancestors. There is every reason to 
believe that all the other great buildings and monuments of 
ancient Rome would have been standing to-day, in as perfect 
a state of preservation as the Pantheon, if they had not been 
pulled in pieces by the Italians of the middle ages. 

The Pantheon is the resting place of many distinguished 
men, among whom is the immortal Raphael. The body of 
Victor Emanuel had just been placed in the walls at the time 
of our last visit. 

But the prominence which the length of this chapter has 
already given to Rome prevents our speaking of the magnifi- 
cence of Nero's Golden Palace ; of the places of Roman bur- 
ial ; of the home of the great Tribune, Rienzi, now a black- 
smith shop, and near it the remains of the very bridge so 
bravely defended by Horatius ; of Mt. Testaccio, 170 feet 
high, built entirely of broken pottery ; of the Protestant Cem- 
etery where are buried many illustrious foreigners, among 
them the poet Keats and the heart of the poet Shelley, whose 
body was buried where it had washed on shore in the Bay of 
Spezia ; of the Vatican with its treasures of art audits 1100 
rooms ; of the Sacred Stairs, up which we saw pilgrims toil 



TI 8 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

ing on their knees ; of the 365 churches which the city is 
said to contain ; of the great aqueducts which supply the city 
with water, and of the hundreds of other things^of Interest 
which are around us on every side. 

When we see the vastness of the ruins, and remember that 
marble and precious stones were as common as brick in a 
modern city, and that a world was plundered to enrich this 
magnificent capitol, we can get something of an idea of what 
the city must have been when she sat on her seven hills mis- 
tress of the world. It is said by contemporary writers that 
there were as many statues in the city as inhabitants, when 
her citizens were numbered by millions, and that Roman gen- 
erals had plundered the Greek cities of their works of art 
until they did not have even a god left to worship 

The destruction of this city has been falsely ascribed to the 
Goths and Vandals, when in reality it is largely due to the 
Italians themselves, for the modern city was mostly construct- 
ed of material plundered from the old. What marble has not 
been needed for buildings has been put through the lime kiln, 
until now but little remains of the old dilapidated city except 
brick and concrete walls. 

As we wander for days among the ruins of this great city, 
our respect and admiration for the ancient Romans hourly 
increase, and we cease to look upon them as a half civilized 
people whose only delight was in war. Few spots in the 
world have played so prominent a part in the world's history, 
and I confess I saw few things in Europe which made such an 
impression on me, or were of greater interest than these broken 
remains of the greatness of the greatest nation the world has 



FLORENCE. 



II 9 



ever seen. I seemed to stand in the cemetery of nations 
beside its most celebrated monument. 



CHAPTER XV. 

FLORENCE. 

T EAVING Rome by early morning train, and going by way 
Jj of Foligno, Cortona and Arezzo, at about sunset we are in 
Florence. Nearly all the way the road is at the foot of the 
Apennines, and through a variegated country. We are hardly 
out of Rome before we come to the little station of Rotondo, 
on the Tiber, where Garibaldi was defeated by the French, and 
but a few miles beyond, to the remains of the ancient Sabine 
town, Cures, the home of Numa Pompilius. As far as Narni 
we are in the beautiful and fertile valley of the Nera, and a 
part of the time in sight of the lofty Mt. vSoracte. Until we 
reach Foligno we are constantly in the midst of scenery and 
passing through places which are well known to ancient his- 
tory. Just before reaching Cortona the train skirts the beau- 
tiful lake Trasimenus, which is shut in by wooded and olive- 
clad hills, in one of whose gorges Hannibal annihilated the 
army of the Roman Consul, Flaminius. A little beyond Arez- 
zo the railway enters the valley of the Arno, where it forces 
its way through a mountain pass and continues down its banks 
at the base of foot hills whose sides are cultivated but their 
summits mostly barren. After some two hours more with a 



120 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

great sweep around the city, the train glides into Florence, 
and a short ride by omnibus brings us to our hotel on the 
banks of the Arno. 

There is probably no city in Italy which is on the whole so 
pleasing to travelers and in which so many cultured foreign- 
ers live as Florence. Besides being a city of palaces and 
beautiful drives, it is the birthplace and home of modern art. 
Her many beautiful churches, her numerous and rich galleries 
of art and her hundreds of studios and artists make her a 
favorite residence for those who are interested in literature 
and art. The situation of the city in the valley of the Arno, 
at the foot of lofty mountains, the view stretching away toward 
the south over fertile plains, is one which goes far toward 
making Florence a beautiful and attractive city. 

The city is built on both sides of the Arno, which is spanned 
by several fine bridges. The Arno like the Tiber has received a 
great deal of flattery at the hands of poets, but mortals of 
ordinary intelligence think the waters of both these rivers are 
far too muddy to be worthy the lavish praise which has been 
bestowed on them. However that may be, neither Rome nor 
Florence could spare ite river, yellow and dirty though it may 
be. We remember one of those beautiful Italian nights with the 
full moon sailing a cloudless sky, when we sat at our window 
until midnight looking out upon the Arno, which was reflect- 
ing the moon and stars from its quiet surface. Across the 
stream the well defined outlines of hill and palace could be 
plainly seen, while below us along the Lung Arno, the street 
was full of people walking, laughing and singing until far after 
midnight. The Arno which looked like a stream of molten 
silver was beautiful then, and we forgot for the time at least, 



FLORENCE. 121 

the tawny wave and dirty foam which met our eye under the 
morning sun. Formerly the city was surrounded by walls, 
but, as is the case with most European cities these have been 
removed and broad drives made in their places. The gates 
only remain, reminding one of triumphal arches. 

The foundation of the literary and artistic supremacy of Flor- 
ence was laid by the immortal Dante, more than six hundred 
years ago. Probably no city in the world has had associated 
with it so many men who are well known to history and art. 
The long list includes such names as Giotto, Alberti, Ghiberti, 
Donatello, Michael Angelo, Raphael, Galileo, Machiavelli, and 
a score of others any one of which would be glory enough for 
one city. The history of her ruling family, the Medici, is 
known the world over. The Renaissance began here in the 
early part of the fifteenth century. In modern times, while 
Florence may not have given to the world any great artists, 
she has done a great amount of faithful work, and has been a 
most potent influence in forming the artistic taste of the world. 

The limits which we proposed to ourselves in this little 
volume, will not permit more than a general mention of the 
galleries, works of art, studios and magnificent cathedrals 
which the city contains. One's entire time for many months 
given to the study of the art of the city would be well spent. 

The two great picture galleries, the Uffizi and the Pitti 
Palace, which are on opposite sides of the Arno and connected 
by a long corridor across the river, will naturally receive an 
early visit. The Uffizi was founded by the Medici family, and 
both in value and extent is one of the finest in the world. A 
small octagonal room called the Tribuna contains the gems of 
the collection, both of ancient sculpture and modern painting. 



122 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

In the center of the room are five masterpieces of ancient 
sculpture, including the celebrated Venus de Medici, which 
was found in the Villa of Hadrian, near Tivoli. On the 
walls are some fifty paintings by such artists as Raphael, Van 
Dyck, Correggio, Titian, Rubens, Michael Angelo, Paolo 
Veronese and others. I suppose no other room in the world 
of its size contains so much that is valuable in art, and which 
will so well repay careful study. The remainder of the collection 
which consists of thousands of paintings and pieces of sculp- 
ture, and other things which pertain to art, is mostly arranged 
according to schools, and will well repay days of study if the 
traveler can give them. On the first floor of the building is 
the grand National Library, which contains 300,000 volumes, 
many of them very rare, and 8,000 manuscripts. 

Following the gallery which leads across the Arno, we reach 
the Pitti Palace, which is the home of the ruling sovereign 
of Italy when he is in Florence, and which also contains a 
small but very choice collection of paintings and works of art. 
It is said that no collection in Italy has so many masterpieces 
and so few inferior works. The Academy of Fine Arts, the 
National Museum, many private collections, and scores of 
beautifully decorated cathedrals are within reach of the student 
of art, but the ordinary tourist who has but little time at com- 
mand will not probably be able to visit them. The mistake 
too frequently made by those who have but little time is in 
going over too many things, and having in the end only an 
indistinct impression of any thing. 

Of the many cathedrals, the tourist, however little may be 
the time at his disposal, will visit two, the Duomo or great 
Cathedral of the City, and San Lorenzo, which contains the 



FLORENCE. 123 

Chapel of the Medici. It is supposed that the ground on 
which the Duomo stands has been used for the purposes of 
Christian worship since twenty-five years after the death of the 
Saviour. The Duomo and its Bell Tower, which is a detatched 
structure, are wonderfully fine in design and execution, and 
apart from their great size, are remarkable for the wealth of 
ornamentation with which they abound. An illustrated article 
in a recent number of Harper's Monthly gives a fine account 
of the building of the cathedral, and the artists who were 
employed in beautifying it. 

San Lorenzo is remarkable particularly for the very fine 
statue of Lorenzo de Medici, by Michael Angelo, which is by 
many considered his finest work, and by Nathaniel Hawthorne 
regarded as a miracle of art. Here also is the Medici Chapel, 
which is magnificent beyond any description and is said to 
have cost $4,500,000. It has more wealth lavished on it than 
any tomb in the world excepting only one in a heathen temple 
of India. 

In 1870 a prince of one of the ruling families of India died 
suddenly in Florence, and his body was burned just outside 
the city with all the forms and ceremonies of the Hindu re- 
ligion. A magnificent monument has recently been erected 
on the spot. 

Those who have a curiosity for such things, can see the 
houses in which lived Cellini, Dante, Galileo, Ghiberti, Machi- 
avelli, Amerigo Vespucci, and other distinguished men. Not 
far out of the city is the tower, 

' ' Where Galileo sat at night to take 
The vision of the stars," 



124 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

and the villa where in his old age he was visited by Milton. 
Of the drives in and about the city too much cannot be said 
in praise, and none will give more pleasure than one including 
the English Cemetery in which lie the remains of Mrs. Brown- 
ing, Walter Savage Landor, Theodore Parker, and many 
English and Americans whose names are not so widely known. 

Like Milan and Turin, Florence is essentially a modern city, 
and the eye will look in vain for any ruins or for that which 
will remind one of Roman times. As far as I have ever 
noticed, the city is kept neat and clean, which cannot be said 
of most Italian cities, and everything is done to make it a 
desirable place of residence for foreigners. Probably no city 
of Europe of its size has so many foreigners living in it, and 
reaps such a harvest from foreign gold. In both Florence and 
Rome there are many English and American permanent resi- 
dents, mostly artists. One of the wealthiest and most popular 
men in the city is a descendant of one of the oldest families 
of Albany, N. Y., and has lived in Florence for many years. 
With but this brief and passing mention we must leave thee, 
Florence, " The most beautiful city in the world," as more 
than one traveler has called thee, but may we never forget the 
many pleasant days thy varied beauty has given us. 

Leaving Florence by morning train for Venice, we pass 
through a rich plain at the foot of the Appennines and in an 
hour reach Pistoja, the place where pistols are said to have 
been first made and from which they took their name. Near 
here Cataline, the great conspirator, at the head of a small 
body of men, was defeated and slain. The greater part of the 
way to Bologna which we reach in a little more than three 
hours from Pistoja, the railroad follows the valley of the Re- 



FLORENCE. 1 25 

no through the spurs of the Appennines, which afford a re- 
markable succession of beautiful views, cascades and tunnels. 
To most of us the first thing which will be suggested at the 
mention of Bologna will be the well known sausage of that 
name which is common in butcher shops, and which was first 
concocted here. Aside from the ancient appearance of the 
city as we see it from the railway carriage, we want to remem- 
ber that its University founded in 1119 is, perhaps, the oldest 
in the world and at one time had 10,000 students, mostly study- 
ing law. The anatomy of the human frame was first taught 
here, and galvanism was discovered by the wife of Professor 
Galvani about one hundred years ago. It is also a fact to be 
noted, particularly by American ladies, that there have been 
many ladies among the corps of its instructors. The first one, 
more than five hundred years ago, was a lady of great beauty, 
and in order not to distract the attention of the students, is 
said to have been concealed by a curtain when she lectured. 

To Ferrara, a ride of about an hour, we are most of the 
time in a flat but fertile region, largely given to rice culture. 
It is situated some three miles south of the Po, and is a city of 
only one-fourth its former number of inhabitants, having all 
the symptoms of being on the down grade. Perhaps the infa- 
mous Lucretia Borgia, who was the wife of one of Ferara's 
nobles, may have brought desolation on the city as a punish- 
ment of her crimes. To Padua, a ride of about two hours, 
the railway is through a level and fertile but uninteresting 
country. Just before entering Padua we pass a little village, 
Abano, which attracts our attention from having been the birth 
place of the historian Livy. 

Padua is one of the oldest cities of Italy and claims its ori- 



126 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

gin from the mythical king of Troy, Antenor, the brother of 
Priam. The University, which has been in existence for 650 
years, all during the middle ages ranked as the very best in 
Europe, and is of considerable repute at the present time. 
After a ride of nearly an hour over a level country with the 
Tyrolese Alps in view to the north, the spires and towers of 
Venice, apparently rising out of the sea, come in sight. Soon 
we are near enough to see the houses of the city which appear 
to rest on the water, and as we see it from the shore of the 
lagoon, the whole city looks like some fairy creation floating 
on the sea. A few minutes later we are crossing the massive 
bridge, two and a third miles long, over the lagoon, and enter 
the depot, where securing our luggage we step out of the 
building and take the Venetian omnibus, a gondola, for our 
hotel. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



VENICE. 

HOW strangely the fate of cities as well as of men, seems to be 
decided. A band of outlaws defending themselves on a 
small hill in a rough inland country, founded Rome, the mis- 
tress of the world for nearly a thousand years. On the over- 
throw of the Western Roman Empire, when Italy was overrun 
by hordes of Northern barbarians, the Veneti were driven 
from their fertile homes on the north bank of the Po and took 
refuge on the low islands along the Adriatic coast, where 



VENICE. T27 

among the rushes and yellow willows they built their huts and 
reared their families, their very poverty protecting them from 
the rapacity of their conquerers. From this unpropitious be- 
ginning sprang Venice, the bright queen of the Adriatic, for 
centuries the mistress of the sea, and an independent state for 
1376 years. Around her are gathered more of romance and 
song, of chivalry and jealous despotism, of beauty and the 
blackest tragedy of the wickedness of the human heart, than 
about almost any other place in the world. 

Imagine if you can a city with no broad paved streets, no 
rattle of carts, no sound or sight of horses, but in their places 
the dark water flowing between the houses and the gentle 
splash of the waves as the black gondolas speed swiftly by, a 
city where the busy din of ceaseless activity seems to have 
died out forever, or rather never to have been born, and you 
have something of an idea of Venice. 

The center of the city in attraction of every kind is the 
Piazza of St. Mark, an open oblong some 500 by 250 feet, 
well paved and surrounded on all sides by historic buildings, 
the church of St. Mark and its wonderful bell tower, the Pal- 
ace of the Doges, the Royal Palace and the finest shops and 
cafes in the whole city. 

The church of St. Mark is a museum of curiosities, and if 
one has seen all the cathedrals of Europe except this it will 
pay to go a thousand miles for the privilege of going through 
it. The church is built in the shape of a Greek cross, and 
from the exterior looks half church, half mosque. It has a 
wonderful amount of decoration externally as well as in the 
interior, and is a maze of domes, marble pillars, arches and 
mosaics, Over the principal entrance are the four bronze 



128 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

horses, which are supposed to have been brought to Rome 
from Greece, from there taken to Constantinople, and when 
that city was conquered by one of the Doges in the middle 
ages, brought to Venice. Napoleon carried them to Paris, 
but was afterwards obliged to return them with the spoils 
plundered from other European cities. They weigh about 
two tons each and are of solid copper. 

Passing through the vestibule one is bewildered by the 
sight before him. The ceiling, sides and floor are literally 
covered with mosaics, of which there are enough to ceil a 
room 700 feet square. The floor of the cathedral is a mixture 
of mosaic and beautiful marble, and is very uneven, parts of 
the foundation having settled. Around the church are me- 
mentos from all parts of the world, and noticeably a large 
number of very fine representations in bronze. 

Beneath the richly ornamented High Altar are the relics 
and remains of St. Mark. Behind this is a second altar with 
four spiral columns of alabaster, of which the two center ones 
which are nearly white and semi-transparent, are said to have 
belonged to Solomon's Temple. Among the other curious 
things in the cathedral are the stone on which John the Bap- 
tist was beheaded, a crystal vase containing some of the "Blood 
of the Savior," a fragment of the true cross, a portion of the 
skull of St. John, and a number of other sacred and interest- 
ing relics. 

It was in the vestibule of this cathedral that the emperor 
Barbarossa kneeled before the Pope and as a sign of subjec- 
tion received the pontiff's foot upon his neck. Here also 
were interred in 1868 the remains of Italy's idolized hero, Dan- 



VENICE. 129 

iel Manin, the President of the Republic of 1848, the only one 
who has been thus honored during the last three centuries. 

In front of the church is the Bell Tower, a square-based, 
brick structure more than three hundred feet high, from which 
there is a fine view of the city, the canals, the sea, and the 
mainland. As most of the houses are covered with dingy old 
tiles, and the chimneys are made of the same material, the 
view reminds one strongly of a vast, deserted brick yard with 
thousands of old flower pots scattered over it. On the left of 
St. Mark's is the clock tower, with automatic figures, which 
go through various motions when the clock strikes the hours, 
the wonder and admiration of all the Venetians. When the 
clock strikes two, a multitude of pigeons, which have their 
homes in the buildings about the square, come to be fed, and 
it is one of the things to do to buy corn at the rate of about 
five dollars per bushel to feed them. When there are no 
travelers about they are fed at public expense. 

Where the Piazzetta touches the Grand Canal are two gran- 
ite columns which were brought from Syria in the twelfth cen- 
tury. One is surmounted with a winged lion of St. Mark and 
the other with a figure of St. Theodore, one of the early patrons 
of the Republic. He is standing on the back of a crocodile, 
holding a sword in his left hand and a shield in his right, and 
is the only known instance of a left-handed saint. The Royal 
Palace and Mint, both fine buildings, are on one side of the 
open square. At the time of our visit the young king and 
queen were in the city and we saw them several times on the 
balcony of the palace. 

On the opposite side of the square is the Doge's Palace, 
which, founded a little more than a thousand years ago, has 



i3° 



TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 



been five times destroyed and rebuilt. It is at the present 
time a fine building, literally filled with pictures and memen- 
tos of the long and eventful history of the Republic. The 
Hall of the Grand Council, a magnificent room, is completely 
covered with historical and other pictures. Tintoretto's " The 
Glory of Paradise," said to be the largest picture ever painted 
on canvas (84 by 34 feet), covers one entire end of the Hall. 

We are shown through rooms fitted up for various state pur- 
poses, and along dark and mysterious passages which lead to 
the still darker dungeons where prisoners were confined. The 
ignorant sentimentalism of poets, and particularly of Byron, 
has clothed everything about the palace and prisons with an 
interest of which the places themselves are entirely unworthy. 

From an upper story of the Palace we cross the canal to 

the prison on the famous " Bridge of Sighs," which Byron has 

immortalized by the lines beginning, 

" I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs, 
A palace and a prison on each hand." 

The keen-sighted Howells in his " Venetian Life," refers to 
the Bridge of Sighs as " that pathetic swindle," and indeed 
one might pass it a dozen times and never suspect anything of 
its greatness unless it were pointed out to him. To hear the 
story of horror which the guide tells (and by the way Antonio's 
English is funny enough to start the vest buttons on a mum- 
my), one would think that the building was planned and built 
entirely for the purpose of seeing how many criminals it 
would be possible to put through it in a day. It is generally 
conceded now that the horror of the punishments inflicted by 
the Doges consisted largely in the fact of their secrecy, the 
accused man being suddenly arrested and never more seen or 
^eard of after he entered the gates of the Palace. 



VENICE. 131 

The city has a large number of churches, many of them 
very fine, of which we visit only a few ; one for Tintoretto's 
masterpiece, the "Marriage of Cana," another for the striking 
monuments of Titian, who died of the plague in Venice, and 
of Canova, the greatest of modern sculptors ; a third for the 
vast literary archives in an adjoining monastery, one of the 
largest collections in the world. It fills three hundred rooms 
and is said to have the almost incredible number of 14,000,000 
documents, some of them dating back a thousand years. 

In one of the numerous palaces of the city are the two gi- 
gantic figures by Canova, Ajax and Hector, which to my 
unprofessional eye are the finest pieces of statuary in Europe. 
If they could only be buried awhile and then dug up, stained 
and mutilated, the artistic world would go wild with admira- 
tion over them. But of course as they have not the mustiness 
of ages about them they are of but little account. Our late 
countryman, A. T. Stewart, in vain offered $200,000 for them. 

One of the most interesting places in the city and the last 
building to which we shall take the reader, is the old Arsenal, 
which at one time employed 16,000 men. On each side of the 
imposing entrance are two granite lions brought from Athens, 
one believed to have been from the battle field of Marathon. 
It is said that when Napoleon I. conquered Venice, he broke 
the heads from the lions and cast them into the canal. Three 
of them were afterward recovered and replaced, but the fourth 
one was not found and so the other lion was furnished with a 
new head. 

The various rooms of the Arsenal are filled with models of 
galleys, instruments of torture, ancient weapons, armor and 
various mementos of the former greatness of the Republic. 



z ^2 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

There is a model of the Doge's state galley which was broken 
up by Napoleon for the gold with which it was richly orna- 
mented. It was manned by a crew of 128 rowers, and was 
used on all state occasions, particularly when the Doge per- 
formed the ceremony of wedding the sea. The first mortar ever 
used, in 1368, made of coiled rope spiked together, which 
threw a stone ball of one hundred pounds weight, is preserved 
in the Arsenal. 

The Venetians were the earliest European nation to use 
fire arms, and the Arsenal has from the sixteenth century a 
five shot revolver which would make Colonel Colt blush for 
his reputation as an inventor, breech-loading guns and can- 
nons, Gatling guns of twenty shots, and a two mile range gun 
made of eleven parts screwed together. Among notable 
things are the iron helmet of Attila, king of the Huns, and 
Othello's armor. The Othello of Shakespeare's " Moor of 
Venice," was not a Moor at all, but a Venetian named Carlo 
Moro, governor of the island of Morea. 

Of course every one makes the tour of the Grand Canal in 
a gondola by daylight, and also by moonlight if possible. The 
boatmen point out the various palaces which form an almost 
continuous line on both sides of the canal. Most of these are 
dilapidated and show prominently the chronic decay from 
which the city is suffering. Noticing the gondolier seemed to 
never be at a loss to name any building which was pointed 
out, one of our party innocently asked for the palace of Mark 
Twain. After a moment's hesitation he pointed his long dirty 
finger towards a tumble-down old palace, and was greeted 
with a perfect shout of laughter. I doubt if to this day he sees 
the point to the game played on him. 



VENICE. jj. 



The Grand Canal, the aristocratic street, if we may call it 
a street, winds through the city not unlike a gigantic letter S 
in form, and near the center is crossed by the celebrated 
bridge called the Rialto. This name was first applied to the 
main island on which the city was commenced, and this island 
has always been the center of the city. This is probably the 
sense in which Shakespeare uses it in the " Merchant of Ven- 
ice," when Shylock says, 

" Signor Antonio, many a time and oft 
In the Rialto you have rated me." 

The bridge to which the name is now applied is a single arch 
across the canal, and consists of a foot passage with rows of 
cheap shops on each side of it. 

Our visit to the city was fortunately at the time when the 
young king and queen were making their tour of the Italian 
cities, at the expiration of the ceremonial time of mourning 
for their father Victor Emanuel. At night the city was illumi- 
nated, while thousands of people were crowding the Piazza 
in front of the Palace and cheering heartily whenever the king 
and queen came in sight. One of those ideal Italian nights, 
when the moon was full and ladies could be out in the open 
air until midnight without extra wrapping, there was a sere- 
nade on the Grand Canal, the singers coming slowly from the 
Rialto to the Palace accompanied by, it seemed to me, every 
one of the 4,000 passenger gondolas in the city, each filled 
with happy pleasure seekers. The sweet voices of the singers, 
the soft air, the wonderfully bright moon, and the strange sur- 
roundings combined to form a memory picture which can 
never be forgotten. 



134 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

One day there was a grand procession of all the beautiful 
boats in the city, surrounding the modest little barge in which 
the king and queen were sailing. The king wore a dress suit 
and plug hat, and the queen was elegantly dressed and had a 
crown on her head and a scepter in her hand, as the tradition- 
al queen always does. 

The gondoliers were a constantly increasing source of ad- 
miration to me. They are wonderfully dexterous with the 
single oar which they use, and which they do not remove from 
the water. Standing in the stern of the boat with this single 
oar they propel the gondola and at the same time have such 
command over it that when going at rapid speed they can 
turn a square corner within an inch of grazing it, and can stop 
almost instantly. The gondolas are thirty-two feet long, and 
have a steep elevated prow which is a guage to tell whether 
the boat will pass under the numerous low bridges which cross 
the small canals throughout the city. A good gondola costs 
about $300. By an edict of the Doges, four hundred years 
ago, they were all painted black, and all private gondolas have 
ever since had that color. 

Venice has been a remarkable city in events, arts and liter- 
ature as well as notable men. Here the illustrious Galileo, at 
that time a professor in the University of Padua, invented the 
telescope. The order of Jesuits was organized here in 1536. 
With Venice are associated Titian, Tintoretto, Canova, Tasso, 
Marco Polo, and # hundreds of others not unknown to fame. 
In 1469 a Venetian printed the first book ever issued from the 
press in Italy, while here lived the celebrated Aldini, of clas- 
sical fame. More books in the Hebrew language are sup- 
posed to have been printed here than in all Christendom 



VENICE. 



135 



combined. In the sixteenth century the first newspaper in 
the world was printed in Venice and sold for a coin called a 
Gazetta and from this came our name Gazette as applied to a 
paper. She issued the first Bill of Exchange, and had the 
first Bank of Deposit and Discount. Artillery was first used 
by the Venetians against the Genoese, and before this they 
had machines which would hurl with crushing force a stone 
weighing a ton and a half. 

As we glide through the noiseless streets of this city, which 
seems as if it might have sprung from the depths of the sea, 
as we pass miles of half- empty palaces which are scarcely kept 
from sinking back into the blue Adriatic, as we see on every 
side of us evidences of a civilization earlier and different from 
anything we have known in America, we feel how small a part 
we as a nation have thus far taken in the world's history, and 
that among nations like the ones whose remains are around 
us everywhere in Italy, we are hardly yet out of our swaddling 
clothes. 

" Oh Venice ! Venice ! when thy marble walls 
Are level with the waters, thex - e shall be 

A cry of nations o'er thy sunken halls, 
A loud lament along the sweeping sea." 



136 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 



CHAPTER XVII. 
NORTHERN ITALY. 

IEAVING Venice by early morning train we reach Milan at 
night, stopping over a train at Verona. Passing through 
Padua and Vicenza by noon we are nearing Verona, which is 
situated at the foot of the Alps. Much of the way there are 
beautiful views toward the mountains, and as we near them 
the country becomes very fertile and highly cultivated. The 
irrigating canals bring fruitfulness from the melting snows of 
the Alps, and vineyards, fields of corn and grain, and mulberry 
trees, whose leaves support the silk worm, are around us on 
every side. 

Verona is attractive to the traveler for two things, the Am- 
phitheatre and the swindle known as Juliet's Tomb. Next to 
the Coliseum at Rome the Verona Amphitheatre is the grand- 
est work of the ancient Romans which has come down to us. 
But little inferior in size to the Coliseum it is so remarkably 
well preserved that in its vast rows of seats which rise one 
above another hardly a stone is missing, and it could seat its 
audience of 50,000 people as comfortably now as in the un- 
known time more than 2,000 years ago when it was built. It 
had a chariot course around the outer side of the wall which 
was reached by an inclined way winding around it, as in the 
common pictures of the Tower of Babel. The lower corridors 
of the ruin have been inclosed and are used as shops. If the 
arena were excavated to its former level and the dungeons 



NORTHERN ITALY. 137 

and dens cleared out the Roman prefect might again take his 
place of honor, the Roman audience again crowd in upon the 
stone seats, and even the gladiators and wild beasts spring 
from the under-ground passages into the arena as in former 
times. 

There is perhaps nothing in the English language so attrac- 
tive to lovers as Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," and this 
is probably the reason why travelers who stop at Verona 
almost without an exception go through a large garden to an 
ordinary house, and in the wood shed adjoining gaze in ad- 
miration on a large stone horse trough, which, without the 
slightest foundation in fact, is called the Tomb of Juliet. 
Nothing can be less romantic, and after one fair view of the 
supposed wonder it begins to dawn upon us that the whole 
thing is one of those numerous devices which are so common 
to get money out of the uninitiated traveler. It does not re- 
quire a vivid imagination to realize that the officious attendant 
who, with a peculiar twinkle in his eye and a smile which 
might be called "child-like and bland," is jingling our money 
in his pocket, and laughing at us as a party of ninnies while he 
smiles so graciously on us as we quickly take our departure. 

The Tombs of the Scaligers, a once powerful family of 
Verona, are well worth a visit, as they are very quaint and are 
emblazoned with their peculiar coat of arms, a ladder. 

A ride of some four hours, most of the way near the foot of 
the Alps, and for the most part through a fertile country, 
brings us to the beautiful city of Milan, the capital of Lom- 
bardy, the second city in Italy in population and the most 
prosperous. It and Turin show evidences of being largely 
modern cities, most of the streets being wide and well paved, 



138 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

and many of the buildings very fine. Since the revolution of 
1859, n0 cities in Italy have made such rapid improvement 
as these two. 

The rich plain in which Milan is situated has been fought 
for by French, Austrians and Italians from time immemorial. 
The battle fields of Lodi and Marengo where the great Na- 
poleon won such signal victories, and of Magenta, the military 
glory of Napoleon III., are all near the city. While Milan has 
cared for her material prosperity she has not neglected her 
opportunities for art, and to-day is a vigorous rival of any city 
in Italy in these matters. Milan, " the grand," is noted the 
world over for her wonderful cathedral which is the largest 
and finest gothic structure in the world. It covers an area of 
about two and a half acres, and is distinguished more for its 
exterior decorations than for the beauty of its interior. 

There are positions from which the view across the Cathe- 
dral discloses a wonderful number of great pillars and gives 
an impression of massiveness which I do not remember to 
have received in any other cathedral. The chapel of St. Bor- 
romeo underneath the church is rich in work, in silver and in 
precious stones. 

But it is a visit to the roof and spire of this great Cathedral 
which calls forth our wonder and admiration. The roof, which 
is of blocks of solid marble, is such a labyrinth of turrets, 
butments and elaborate ornament of every kind, that guides 
are generally sent up with the parties to prevent them from 
wandering around and losing the way. From the platform of 
the spire the view is probably the finest to be had from any 
church tower in the world. The broad plain of Lombardy 
which lies below us is seen to be bounded on the north by the 



NORTHERN ITALY. 139 

best known of the Alps, and on the south by the Apennines. 
To the extreme east,, beyond Turin, the lofty Mont Cenis can 
be distinguished. 

' Not the least interesting of all is the wonderful roof which 
we look down upon, with its thousands of pieces of statuary, 
for it is said that when the decorations are completed there 
will be 10,000 marble figures, mostly on the outside of the 
building, and more than half of these are already in place. 
There is a small engine on the roof for hoisting material, and 
also the houses in which the workmen cut the marble. The 
roof is almost a city in itself. 

In one of the inferior churches is the celebrated " Last 
Supper," by Leonardo da Vinci, one of the best known and 
most admired of the great paintings of the world. It has un- 
fortunately received very bad treatment and is now very much 
injured, so much so that seeing it gives very little satisfaction. 
Probably no finer face of the Savior has ever been painted, 
and yet the great artist himself said that he was not able to 
realize on the fresco his conception of the heavenly beauty 
and grace of the countenance. There was a very beautiful 
copy of this picture in tapestry at the Paris Exposition. 

The Gallery of Victor Emanuel, a beautiful glass-covered 
arcade with shops on each side, costing in all more than 
$1,500,000, is the finest building of its kind in Europe. When 
its 2,000 gas jets are lighted in the evening it is as brilliant a 
place as one can well imagine. The architect fell from a high 
scaffold just as the building was being completed and was 
instantly killed. His monument is an inscription cut in the 
base of the stone arch near where he fell. 

The La Scala Theatre is the second largest in Europe. 



140 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

The stage, one hundred and fifty feet deep, is alone as large as 
an ordinary theatre. 

When Napoleon I. constructed that wonderful military road 
across the Alps by the Simplon pass, he proposed to continue 
it to Milan, and terminate it in the city with a grand triumphal 
arch y and indeed he commenced the arch, but met his great 
reverse of fortune before it was completed. It has, however, 
since been finished and is now one of the many beautiful orna- 
ments of the city. 

A ride of ninety miles toward the east through as fertile and 
beautiful a country as my eyes ever saw, brings us to Turin, for 
a time the capital of the kingdom of Italy. On the way our 
train stops at Magenta, the scene of the battle which gave 
liberty to Italy, and where the late President of the French 
Republic, Marshal MacMahon, at that time the world's hero, 
by his bravery and strategy won the great victory and was 
then on the field of battle created Marshal of France and 
Duke of Magenta. A monument, a few grassy mounds, and 
some nearly obscured earthworks are all that remain to remind 
us that on this fertile plain, where we see waving corn, vines, 
and fig trees, nearly 17,000 men laid down their lives on that 
bloody day, eighteen years ago. 

Even more than Milan is Turin a modern city, for like most 
of the cities of northern Italy it has been repeatedly destroyed 
by the vicissitudes of war. For this reason, while it is a beau- 
tiful and prosperous city, it has but comparatively little of in- 
terest to the traveler. Victor Emanuel had his home here and 
it was his favorite residence until his death. The Palace, the 
Armory, the new Synagogue, and the many beautiful drives 
about the city are all worthy the notice of the traveler. The 



NORTHERN ITALY. 141 

streets are broad, regular, well paved and kept very clean, 
while most of the houses are of apparently modern construc- 
tion. It would be hard to find a city anywhere which would 
more nearly come up to the American idea of an enterprising, 
wide-awake city. 

We were pleased with Northern Italy, with the enterprise 
and ambition of the people, and most of all with the confi- 
dence which they seemed to have in themselves to again 
become a united and powerful nation. Since our former visit, 
five years ago, there is a marked improvement in the people 
and the country, and were it not for that incubus which Italy 
in common with other European nations hangs about her neck, 
a large standing army, she would make rapid progress in ma- 
terial success. Young Italy has shaken off the dust of her 
former dead ages, and rising in all the hope and vigor of her 
newly found life, is making rapid strides toward regaining 
what she lost while she slept, and many who read these pages 
will live to see her again as of early times, a power among the 
nations. 

Leaving Turin in the morning we go by way of Mont Cenis 
Tunnel, Culoz, Macon and Dijon to Paris, which we reach 
after a twenty-four hours ride. During the day we are mostly 
among mountains and in a hilly country, but at early daylight 
as we are nearing Paris, which we reach at six o'clock in the 
morning, we are in the midst of a fine country, cultivated with 
all that neatness and care for which the French are noted. 
The painted buildings, evenly kept hedges and abundant crops 
are evidences of a prosperous people. A little later, after a 
long ride through the suburbs, we are in the city and at the 
station. After passing our luggage through the hands of the 



142 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

easily satisfied Custom House officers we take carnage for 
our hotel near the center of the city, and are prepared to 
enjoy to the fullest the beauties of this queen city of the world. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
THE PARIS EXPOSITION. 

PROBABLY no more difficult task can be assigned than to 
require a description of the Paris Exposition in a few brief 
pages. The difficulty will be apparent from the fact that the 
catalogue simply of the Art Departments of three prominent 
nations alone, is a volume of several hundred pages. A simple 
enumeration of the articles exhibited by all nations in all 
departments would fill many volumes the size of Webster's 
Unabridged Dictionary. One cannot examine all the exhibits 
with any degree of thoroughness in less than six months, and 
hence only a general account can be expected here, and im- 
pressions rather than descriptions given. 

We enter the principal gateway from the Place du Trocadero 
through the grand Trocadero itself, the finest building on the 
grounds. It consists of a large circular structure with wings 
facing and curving towards the main building on the opposite 
side of the river Seine. This building which is substantially 
made of stone and brick, is intended to be permanent and 
belongs to the city of Paris. It has a very large concert hall 
in the center, flanked with long open colonnades. The long 



THE PARIS EXPOSITION. 143 

rooms in the wings will probably be used for art galleries. 
The central building has a high tower ascended by an eleva- 
tor, from which there is a fine view of the grounds and entire 
city. 

From the upper balcony of the Trocadero you look over the 
great artificial waterfall which flows from the second story of 
the building, and over the basin and fountain beyond, and 
see a broad walk leading across a wide bridge up to the center 
of the great exposition building, a quarter of a mile away. 
On both sides of the river and on each side of this broad 
walk are beautifully laid out grounds, with choice flowers, 
fountains, shrubs and lawn. Dotted through this open space 
are many small buildings, some used for restaurants, the others 
for the minor displays by Egypt, China, Japan, Tunis, Algiers, 
Morocco, Persia and other nations. 

In the restaurants food is served in the style of the country 
which each represents, and in the little shops cheap trinkets 
from foreign countries are sold. Here the dark-eyed, swarthy 
buccaneer from Tunis, with the stem of a water pipe in his 
mouth and a small arsenal hanging to his person, inveigles 
the unwary into buying some worthless steel or shell ornament 
at ten times its real value, and near by the incessant clatter of 
barbaric music invites you to some saloon where African or 
Asiatic drinks are served in all their native nastiness. Here 
the French government has buildings in which are displayed 
the results of its investigations of the ravages of noxious in- 
sects, its forest culture and its meteorological department. 
The French society for preventing cruelty to animals also 
makes a small exhibit. 

Across the river on each side of the broad walk are also 



144 TW0 MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

many small buildings representing the interests of horticul- 
ture, photography, navigation, etc. One conspicuous object 
of special interest to Americans is the gigantic bronze head 
of the figure of Liberty, which the French are sending as a 
present to America to be set up in New York harbor. Most 
of my readers will remember the huge hand of the same figure, 
which was at the Philadelphia Exposition. 

At the left is a large building filled with fruits and flowers, 
but I will not tax your credulity by attempting to tell the size 
of the oranges, citrons, grapes and peaches, from Sorrento, on 
the bay of Naples. To an American, from the northern states 
particularly, the fruit is simply wonderful. An almost inter- 
minable annex is filled with a varied exhibit of French agri- 
cultural products and machinery. I was surprised to find the 
great amount of intricate agricultural machinery, like reapers 
and mowers, steam threshing machines, and portable engines 
for farm work, which are in this department. 

Near this is a novelty, a long building devoted entirely to a 
display of oyster culture. Twenty or more long tanks through 
which water is constantly passing are filled with oysters of all 
ages and conditions. In many of the tanks there are also fish 
and sea animals, whose strange forms and brilliant colors are 
a source of unending delight. An eager crowd always sur- 
rounds the tanks containing those harlequins of the ocean, 
the hermit crabs, whose uncouth antics are watched with the 
greatest interest. 

The main exposition building is divided into five parts, 
attached to a common hall in front and rear. These parts are 
each many hundred feet in length and together cover acres of 
ground. The central one, which is separated from the others 



THE PARIS EXPOSITION. 145 

by a walk of twenty feet on each side, is devoted entirely to 
the Art department. To the right of this as you enter from 
the front are the general departments of all nations except 
France. Beyond, is, to the right, machinery of all nations 
except France, and beyond this a large number of detached 
buildings belonging to various nations and generally devoted 
to special displays. On the left of the art department and 
occupying space equal to that used by all the other nations is 
the display of the French. Back of this immense system of 
buildings is a large number of detached structures used for 
various purposes. 

The plan of breaking the large building up into long, sepa- 
rate sections leaves no point from which such a grand view 
can be obtained as through the central aisle of the main build- 
ing at Philadelphia. Owing to this the vastness of the Expo- 
sition does not impress itself upon one at first sight as it did 
at Philadelphia, and it is only when you have tired yourself 
out three or four days in walking through the sections that 
you begin to have a realizing sense of how large the display 
really is. The arrangement of the present Exposition, how- 
ever, is much more effective than the long, narrow aisles and 
cross sections of the Vienna Exposition of 1873. 

Time permits mention of the exhibits of separate nations 
only in a general way. It is expected as a matter of course 
that the nation in whose country the Exposition is held will 
on the whole excel any other, and to this France has not 
proved an exception, for while in quantity her exhibit nearly 
equals that of the rest of the whole world's, in quality of many 
things she is not inferior to the best. This is particularly true 
of all the forms of manufactured silk, and of the practical ap- 



146 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

plication of art to manufactured articles of every kind. Taste 
seems to come natural to a Frenchman and everything to 
which he puts his hand shows it. The Gobelin tapestry and 
Sevres porcelain ware in the French department are unequaled. 

England excels in machinery, particularly that used in the 
manufacture of cotton. Elkington & Go's art jewelry and 
plate are the finest in this Exposition as they were at Phila- 
delphia, and Minton's china is certainly but little inferior to 
that of Sevres. Germany is conspicuously absent, having no 
representation at all, as cordial relations have never existed 
between France and Germany since the last war. Belgium 
makes a creditable display of heavy machinery and rolling 
stock for railways, while as a matter of course the laces of 
Brussels are unequaled. Her schools make a good exhibit, 
particularly in drawing. 

Since the Philadelphia Exposition, Switzerland has felt that 
her watch business has been in a critical condition and she 
has this time made an unusually fine display, carrying off the 
highest honors. She has on exhibition a very complicated 
piece of machinery for embroidering, which admits a roll of 
cloth fifteen feet wide and works it into any desired pattern. 
A steam road wagon which came from Switzerland over the 
ordinary roads a distance of 360 miles in seven days, attracts 
considerable attention. The limitless display of Swiss carved 
wood which has haunted every Exposition for the last twenty 
years is on hand this time in full force. Italy sends beautiful 
glass ware from Salviati and Venice, mosaics from Florence 
and Rome, coral from Naples, and some fine cabinets of ebony 
inlaid with ivory. As usual the Italian department is one 
vast bazar for the sale of jewelry. 



THE PARIS EXPOSITION. I47 

The Chinese and Japanese exhibit about the same things as 
at Vienna and Philadelphia, curious silks, ivory and carved 
wood-work, vases and lacquer work. The Chinese have one 
or two of the same carved bedsteads with open work pillars 
and canopies which they sent to Philadelphia. A beautiful 
shawl made for the marriage of the emperor, and valued at 
$5,000 is much admired. The body is of the finest and heav- 
iest silk with a large animal which looks like a cross between 
a donkey and a peacock, worked in the center in rich col- 
ored silk and gold thread. 

The Japanese dress like Europeans, but the Chinese wear 
their own costume, which consists of wooden shoes, wide 
breeches, a long, loose frock reaching below the knees, a cue 
braided out with black ribbon so as to reach nearly to the 
ground, while the whole is topped out with a wash-bowl straw 
hat with a small red plume fastened to the crown. 

Russia makes a good display of gold cloth from the east, 
jewelry and art plates from Moscow, iron, leather, fur and 
velvet robes, and, of course, of malachite. A single vase of 
this material some eight feet high, is valued at $10,000 and a 
pair somewhat smaller at $13,000. 

Denmark has an ingenious type writer which does not oc- 
cupy more space than a cube of nine inches, and which can 
be set on one's writing desk, used and removed. The Argen- 
tine Republic sends leather ; Siam, weapons and gold cloth ; 
and nearly all the small countries of Europe and America 
have something to represent them. Even the little Republic 
of San Marino, the smallest independent government in the 
world, with a territory of only twenty-one square miles, is repre- 
sented by a few pictures and minerals. 



148 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

But how about the display of the United States, my readers 
are probably asking. While the quantity of our material is 
nothing to what we had at Philadelphia, our part of the Ex- 
position is as a whole creditable to us. Our machinery is 
good, and our reapers and mowers among the best. In 
scales, locks, fire arms, pumps, chemicals, organs, books, watch- 
es and many other things our exhibit is good. Tiffany cS: Co. 
show the Bryant vase, and fine artistic table ware. They have 
made sales to the Prince of Wales and to parties from Japan. 
But the most interesting thing they display is their reproduc- 
tions of the gold treasures and ornaments found by General 
Di Cesnola in the island of Cyprus. Every dent which un- 
skilled workmanship, time and neglect have impressed upon 
the originals is faithfully reproduced here. The General has 
written a letter stating that the work is so well done that he 
can hardly tell the copies from the original. The collection 
is sold to the Berlin Museum for $5,000. 

In the Art department the French make the largest display 
and the Italians the next, the French running largely to paint- 
ings, the Italians to statuary. As to the respective merits of 
the two, criticism is so largely a matter of opinion, that it is 
difficult if not impossible to reach a correct conclusion. Per- 
sonally I have never been an admirer of the French school of 
painting and do not love too well the modern Italian, but I do 
like the paintings of the English artists and particularly Land- 
seer's animals. Austria, Russia, Denmark, Sweden and Nor- 
way are fairly represented. 

None of the celebrated pictures from the great galleries of 
Europe have been brought to the Exposition, and so those 
who expected to see a wonderful collection of the best paint- 



THE PARIS EXPOSITION. 149 

ings in the world, are sadly disappointed. American art, 
which is but yet in its infancy, is poorly represented. Not 
only is the space allotted us scantily filled, but our best artists 
are not represented, and none of our best known paintings 
are on exhibition. There are half a dozen collections in New 
York city which are finer. Indeed I suppose there is the 
smallest possible encouragement for an American artist to 
send pictures to Europe hoping for a market, as it would be 
almost as great a folly as sending coals to Newcastle. As was 
to be expected the art department, while perhaps no larger, is 
considerably better than ours at Philadelphia. As a whole, 
our exhibit is such a decided improvement on the one we 
made at Vienna that we have every reason to be proud of it. 

Not the least interesting and instructive part of the Expo- 
sition is to see the people from all parts of the world, of all 
complexions and costumes, walking about the buildings study- 
ing the miniature world in which they are. 

Nothing can more effectually take the conceit out of one 

whether he be an American who thinks his country is the 

greatest in the world in all respects, or a South Sea Islander 

who prides himself upon his superiority, than to see how much 

other nations have accomplished. When we see the immense 

amount of money and labor which has been expended on the 

World's Exposition, and think that it seems to be necessary 

that each one should be better than any one before, we can 

but wonder what we shall see in twenty-five years more, if we 

should be so fortunate as to attend a World's Exposition 

then. And whiLe our imagination is trying to construct the 

beautiful palace which shall hold the Exposition of the future, 

and to wander among the probable treasures which it will 
10 



150 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

contain, we walk down to the river, take the steamer for the 
Place de la Concorde and turn our back upon the great Expo- 
sition of 1878. 



CHAPTER XIX. 
PARIS. 



1 FTER visiting the Exposition, we commence our study of 
Ji the city of Paris at the Place de la Concorde, because it is 
near our hotel and is also the center of interest in the city 
itself. It is an open square of nearly a quarter of a mile on 
a side, adjoining the garden of the Tuileries and at one end 
of the Champs Elysees. It is laid out in drives and walks 
and is adorned with statues and fountains, and with the Obe- 
lisk of Luxor, one of the finest in the world, which was a gift 
of the Pasha of Egypt to the French. It is a [single stone, 
seventy-six feet high, covered with hieroglyphics, weighs half 
a million pounds, and cost four hundred thousand dollars to 
bring it from before a temple in ancient Thebes and set it up 
in its present position. The inscriptions show it to_, be 3,300 
years old. On opposite sides of the obelisk are two beautiful 
fountains ornamented with figures of sea monsters spouting 
water into a vast central basin. 

The^Place de la Concorde is famous in history as the spot 
on which the guillotine was set up in 1793 and whose first 



PARIS. I51 

victim was no less a personage than Louis XVI. He was 
followed in rapid succession by Marie Antoinette, the Duke of 
Orleans and many other distinguished men and women, and 
in the next year by^Robespierre himself and his associate con- 
spirators. Within a little over two years, it is estimated that 
more than 2,800 people were executed here. In the bloody 
civil strife with the communists in 187 1, a fierce engagement 
was fought here and ever) thing in the vicinity, except the ob- 
elisk, more or less injured. At the time of my visit in 1873 
only a part of the damage done had been repaired, and the 
spots of fresh fresco on the buildings which had been injured 
by bullets could be plainly seen. 

Standing at the base of the obelisk an extensive view is 
around us. Looking in the direction from which we ap- 
proached it, up the Rue Royal, the magnificent church of La 
Madeleine fills the whole view at the end of the street. The 
building which is 350 feet long, is in the style of a Greek tem- 
ple with a row of grand Corinthian columns entirely around 
it. The exterior is severely plain but the structure is wonder- 
fully impressive from its perfect proportions and immense 
size. The flight of great steps which leads to the portico and the 
massive bronze door thirty-five feet high are in keeping with 
the building. In front of the Madeleine the Communists had 
erected a barricade and placed a battery, and when they were 
driven from this several hundred of the miscreants sought 
refuge in the church where they were followed by the soldiers 
and not one of them was allowed to escape. The building 
yet bears the marks of the deadly contest which was waged in 
and around it. 

From our standpoint at the base of the obelisk, and looking 



152 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

in the opposite direction across an open space, partly drive- 
way and partly park, we can see the smoke of the fast steam- 
ers on the Seine, and on the opposite bank some of the fine 
city government buildings. Beyond these is the gilded 
dome of the Hotel des Invalids, where the government takes 
care of its disabled soldiers, and not far from this to the right 
we have an end view of the Trocadero, the finest building on 
the Exposition grounds. 

Turning to the right we look up toward the Champs Elysees, 
which is one of the finest and most popular resorts for all 
classes, to the Triumphal Arch built by Napoleon I., a mile 
distant, which stands on high ground at the end of the broad 
drive. The Elysees is a vast pleasure ground laid out in 
walks and drives, and ornamented with flowers, trees, foun- 
tains and statuary. At night it is brilliantly illuminated by 
thousands of gas jets and in the summer is crowded with peo- 
ple. Scattered over it are various places of amusement and 
innumerable cafes most of them intended for the patron- 
age of the lower classes. A few evenings spent until midnight 
in the various places of amusement and in walking through 
the grounds will give one an insight of many phases of life 
which are peculiarly Parisian. 

On the right of the broad street is the beautiful garden and 
Palais de 1' Elysees, which for one hundred and fifty years 
has been the residence of royal and distinguished people, and 
was occupied by Marshal MacMahon at the time he was elect- 
ed President of the Republic. On the opposite side of the 
Champs Elysees is the great building erected in 1855 for the 
first Paris Exposition. It is now called the Palais de 1' In- 
dustrie and is used for the exhibition of manufactured 'goods 



PARIS. 



53 



and agricultural products. Just beyond this is a large circu- 
lar building in which, at the time of my first visit, was exhib- 
ited the grand panorama of the siege of Paris, which was 
shown near the entrance to the Main Building at Philadelphia 
in 1876. Near here is also the celebrated Jardin Mabille, 
which used to be considered the embodiment of all that is 
immodest in the dance, but which has lost its "honors," if they 
may be called such, to the American ballet. 

Remembering that we are standing at the base of the obe- 
lisk and looking toward the Arch of Triumph, if we turn and 
look in the opposite direction we see the Jardin des Tuileries, 
and beyond the blackened ruins of one side of the Palais des 
Tuileries. The garden is laid out in walks and is beautiful 
with flowers, fountains, statuary and a grove of orange trees, 
some of which are three hundred years old. This is a favor- 
ite resort of invalids and nursery-maids with children. There 
are hundreds of chairs under the shade and by the fountains, 
which may be hired for one or two cents each. 

Going through the garden, a walk of less than half a mile 
brings us to the back of the quadrangle of the Tuileries, 
which was destroyd by the Communists in 1871. Finding 
that their cause was lost, with a deliberation worthy of fiends 
they determined to destroy the public buildings of the city, 
and accordingly placed through all of them barrels of gun 
powder and rags saturated with petroleum. When they knew 
that the Versailles troops were conquering them they set fire 
to the buildings and nearly all of them were destroyed. The 
side of the Palace next the garden and the one nearly a thous- 
and feet long on the Rue de Rivoli were reduced to ruins. 
In 1873 the government had done nothing toward restoring 



154 TW MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

the Palace, but now in 1878 the part along the Rue de Rivoli 
has been rebuilt and workmen are just commencing on the 
other side of the quadrangle. Entering through an opening 
in the wall we are in the Place du Carrousel, which contains 
a small Triumphal Arch built by Napoleon I. in imitation of 
the Arch of Servius at Rome. Upon this were placed the 
four horses brought from St. Mark's at Venice, and which 
were restored after the fall of Napoleon. Near this is the 
great balloon which makes ascensions of about a third of a 
mile, taking up a large number of people daily. It was while 
defending this Palace for Louis XVI. in 1789 that the Swiss 
guards were butchered by the angry populace. The memory 
of their bravery has been perpetuated by the figure of the 
Dying Lion cut in the rock at Lucerne. 

Passing along into a partly enclosed court we are within the 
quadrangle of the New Louvre, called the Palace Napoleon 
III., beyond which and completing the quadrangle is the Old 
Louvre. The whole building, the Tuileries and the Louvre, 
forms an immense quadrangle. They have been 350 years in 
building from first to last. The two Napoleons have done a 
large part of the work, Napoleon III. alone expending 
$15,000,000 on the work in six years. Of the immense build- 
ing a part is occupied as government offices, a part is in ruins 
and a part under repairs, but by far the greater portion is 
devoted to the priceless collection of paintings, sculpture, an- 
tiquities and various articles of art. The Communists intend- 
ed to destroy the Louvre as they did the Tuileries and would 
have done so if the Versailles troups had not come upon them 
sooner than they were expected. As it was, they burned the 
part containing the imperial library. 



PARIS. 155 

To show how impossible it is to give any description of the 
contents of this vast collection, it is only neceessary to say 
that it takes one three hours to walk through the rooms with- 
out stopping to look at anything. Nothing short of days of 
faithful work will give one anything like an adequate idea of 
the wealth of the collection. The collection, which is open 
all day without any charge for admission, is visited by mil- 
lions of people every year, and on Sunday is generally 
thronged. 

The treasures of this vast curiosity shop are divided into 
departments, arranged by nations and subjects. Among the 
Assyrian Antiquities are some immense winged bulls with 
human heads, which are supposed to be four thousand years, 
old. In the presence of such antiquity our boasted one hun- 
dred years of national life sinks into insignificance. In the 
collection of sculpture are such works as the Borghese Gladi- 
ator, Venus of Milo, Diana and the deer, and many others 
almost equally well known. 

In the Grand Salon are some of the finest paintings in the 
collection. Here is Murillo's " Conception of the Virgin," a 
small picture which sold the last time it changed hands for 
$123,000, a most wonderful painting indeed, Raphael's " Holy 
Family," Paul Veronese's " Marriage at Cana," and hundreds 
of others which we could only name but not describe. There 
are rooms devoted to various special collections, two to sou- 
venirs, one of Napoleon I. the other of various French kings 
from the time of the great Charlemagne, one to bronzes, four- 
teen to drawings, many of them of the greatest masters, several 
to mediaeval curiosities and glass and pottery, eleven to vari- 
ous things connected with navigation, and a very large num- 



156 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

ber to paintings. One of the picture galleries is one-third of 
a mile long. The finest paintings generally have from one to 
half a dozen artists copying them. The Louvre is a miniature 
art world in itself, and probably there is no collection in the 
world in which every department of art is so well represented. 

Just beyond the Louvre is the church of St. Germain, which 
was formerly used by the royal family, and whose bell rang the 
signal for the bloody massacre of St. Bartholomew. 

Continuing along the Rue de Rivoli we soon reach the 
ruins of the magnificent Hotel de Ville, which was one of the 
finest buildings in Europe. It was wantonly destroyed by 
the Communists in 187 1, and the only consolation we have for 
its loss is the fact that six hundred of the miscreants perished 
in^it. It was used as the headquarters of the government of 
the city of Paris, and had figured largely in the political his- 
tory of France for the last two hundred years. It stands now 
a mass of unsightly blackened ruins, a memento of commun- 
istic rule. 

Resuming our walk along the Rue de Rivoli, we soon see 
before us a slender column crowned with an emblematical figure 
of Liberty. This marks the spot where formerly stood the 
celebrated prison, the Bastille, which has been so thrillingly 
wrought into story by Victor Hugo and Dickens. This was 
one of the last places held by the Communists and was strong- 
ly fortified. In 1873 tne houses in the vicinity were yet much 
injured from the fire of artillery and musketry, and a little 
custom house which stood on the bridge had been shot entirely 
through by a cannon ball. These marks of war have now 
been entirely removed. 

A fifteen minutes walk from here brings us to the well- 



PARIS. 157 

known cemetery of Pere Lachaise. On the way we pass be- 
tween two great prisons, one being that in which the Arch- 
bishop of Paris was murdered by the Communists. This was 
also the prison in which convicts who were condemned to the 
galleys were confined. The place of public execution is be- 
tween these two prisons and we are shown the spot where two 
criminals are to be guillotined a few days later. The street 
leading to the cemetery is lined on each side for some distance 
with shops of marble workers and florists, who supply the 
thousands of visitors with decorations for the graves of their 
friends. The grounds which have an extent of two hundred 
acres seem to us to be very much crowded. There are more 
than 16,000 monuments in the cemetery, of which the greater 
part are small and unpretending. The burial lots are very 
limited, and the bodies are placed in them one upon another, 
until they are several layers deep. 

Of the multitude of distinguished people who are buried 
here we can mention but a few. The best known monument 
and the one most frequently visited is probably that of the 
unfortunate Abelard and Heloi'se, whose sadly romantic story 
is so well known, particularly by disappointed lovers, who even 
now keep the tomb generally carefully decorated with flowers. 
The monument itself is neither very beautiful nor aside from 
the romance very attractive. The brave, but unfortunate Mar- 
shal Ney, whom Napoleon styled " the bravest of the brave," 
has no monument, but his little grass-covered plot of ground 
is surrounded by a plain iron fence in whose stone foundation 
under the gate is cut the single word, NEY. The family 
vault of President Thiers is very small and in no way remark- 
able looking. He had but recently been buried at the time 



158 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

of our second visit and his tomb was yet covered with with- 
ered " immortelles." The cemetery figured prominently in 
the insurrection of 1871, and one of the tombs on an elevation 
was used as a fortress. When it was finally captured by the 
troops, all who were found within it were immediately placed 
against the outer wall near where they were captured, and 
shot. The wall yet has evident traces of bullet marks. 

A ride of more than a mile along a continuous street with 
many different names brings us to Les Buttes Chaumont, 
which was formerly a dumping place for all the refuse of the city 
and a spot where criminals were executed. By the labor of 
the great M. Haussmann, who, under the direction of Napo- 
leon III. made so many improvements in the city, this ill- 
omened place was converted into a beautiful park, and made 
a delightful resort. From it a good view of a portion of the 
city can be had. This was also one of the strongholds of the 
Communists. 

Returning to the Place de la Bastile, a drive of three miles 
around the Boulevards to the Madeleine gives us a sight of the 
finest streets of Paris. These Boulevards occupy the site -of 
the old city wall, which was removed some two hundred years 
ago, and in its place the city now has the finest avenues in 
the world. Along the way are several triumphal arches, 
and opposite the Rue de la Paix is the magnificent Opera 
House, which is said to have cost $13,000,000 and is the finest 
and largest opera house in the world. It was one of the 
many straws which helped to break the back of Napoleon III. 
The interior and exterior are richly decorated with marble 
and gilding. During the time of the Exposition the building, 
immense as it is, is crowded every night, and seats can be 



PARIS. 159 

secured only at a very high price and by engaging them days 
in advance. 

Down the Rue de la Paix, which is a beautiful avenue, can 
be seen the column Vendome, built of captured cannon by 
Napoleon T. Its design is like Trajan's Column at Rome. It 
was pulled down by the Communists and in 1873 its recon- 
struction had just been commenced. It is now completed. 

Near the Vendome Column and opposite the Louvre is the 
Palais Royal, built by the great Cardinal Richelieu. It is an 
immense quadrangle constructed around an open square of 
some 500 by 1,000 feet, and is noted for the fine shops, largely 
for the sale of jewelry, which occupy the first floor. The 
whole place is brilliantly lighted at night and is crowded with 
visitors. Those who sell imitation jewelry are obliged to 
have a sign to that effect put in a conspicuous place. The 
city authorities impose a heavy fine on any one who does not 
conform to this regulation. 

From the Palais Royal, a walk of half an hour along the 
Rue de Rivoli, through the Place de la Concorde, up the 
Champs Elysees brings us to the Arch of Triumph which is 
probably the largest and finest one ever erected, and was 
commenced by the great Napoleon to honor himself and the 
French nation. It consists of a vast arch a hundred feet high 
intersected by a smaller one. The height of the entire struc- 
ture is one hundred and sixty feet. From the summit looking 
toward the Tuileries there is a very fine view of Paris, while 
to the right an avenue one hundred and fifty feet wide leads 
to the famous Bois de Boulogne, which after having been 
used for various purposes is now laid out as an extensive park. 
In the depths of its dark woods there have been countless 



l6o TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

duels fought, suicides committed and crimes of all kinds 
planned and executed. 

A walk of fifteen minutes down Avenue Rome brings us to 
the entrance to the Trocadero, of which mention has been 
made in the previous chapter. Entering through this and 
crossing the river we are on the grounds of the Main Exposi- 
tion, which occupy the Champ du Mars, for a long time used 
as a parade and drill ground. 

From here it is but a little way to the Hotel des Invalides, 
the summit of whose gilded dome, 340 feet above the pave- 
ment, is one of the most conspicuous objects in Paris. This 
Hotel is the home of disabled soldiers or those who have 
served thirty years in the army. Here the veterans are pro- 
vided with all the necessities of life, and in comfort and honor 
pass their days in living over with each other the glories of 
the past. The grounds are decorated with captured cannon 
and other significant warlike ornaments. There are at present 
about two thousand inmates, among them, at the time of my last 
visit, six of the soldiers of Napoleon I., the youngest of whom 
was eighty-two years old. These are wheeled about and are 
honored in every way by their companions. From a news- 
paper item I learn that one of these died early last winter. 
In the old chapel during the time of Napoleon I., there were 
nearly three thousand captured battle flags hung up around the 
room, but most of them were destroyed before the allied armies 
entered the city in 1814, and there are now only some 360 
tattered ones remaining. 

Just back of the old chapel is the magnificent structure 
which contains the tomb of Napoleon. The building is elab- 
orately finished on the exterior but not fully ornamented 



PARIS. l6l 

within. In the crypt, which is sunk into the floor under the 
dome, is the single massive block of highly polished sandstone 
from Finland, which is the hero's sarcophagus. His remains 
were brought from St. Helena in 1840 and placed in this their 
honored resting place. The subdued light which is admitted 
to the room gives the whole a more impressive appearance. 
During the siege of the city by the Prussians the gilded dome 
was a favorite target for the Prussian gunners, but its distance 
saved it from injury. The French, however, covered it with 
sand bags to break the force of the shells if any should hap- 
pen to reach it. 

A liberal mile from the Hotel des Invalides is the Palais du 
Luxembourg, now containing a collection of very fine modern 
paintings, for nothing is admitted to the Louvre until the 
artist has been dead ten years. Near by is the Pantheon, a 
fine church which stands on the highest ground in Paris. 
Not far from here is the Hotel de Cluny which occupies the 
site of a Roman Palace. It now contains a collection of Me- 
diaeval Curiosities. On the grounds are remains of Roman 
Baths. 

On the island in the Seine are the Morgue, which is seldom 
without an occupant, the church of Notre-Dame, which inter- 
ests me especially for its beautiful Gothic entrance of reced- 
ing decreasing arches, and the Palais de Justice and other 
public buildings. On the left bank of the river are a number 
of public buildings many of which were destroyed by the 
Communists. 

Of the many excursions to places outside the city walls we 
will mention but two, one to St. Cloud and Sevres, the other 
to Versailles. The beautiful Palace of St. Cloud which was 



162 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

built a little more than three hundred years ago, has figured 
very prominently in French history as a favorite residence of 
the reigning family, and the place where many important 
events have taken place. The Palace and the gardens had 
been enlarged by successive monarchs until there was scarcely 
a more beautiful place in Europe. During the Prussian war 
the town was held by the Prussians and the Palace and its 
contents were burned and the decorations of the garden wan- 
tonly destroyed. Of all the towns held by the Prussians dur- 
ing the war, none received such shameful treatment or shows 
so terribly the blight of war. The Porcelain manufactory 
which is near here was badly damaged by the war, but has 
been restored. It belongs to the government and the process 
of manufacture is kept a secret as much as possible. The 
public are admitted to a part of the buildings, but mostly to 
those which contain specimens of the manufactured work. 

About ten miles from the city and easily reached by car- 
riage or rail, is Versailles, the summer capital of France, and 
one of the favorite residences of royalty. The Palace and 
gardens are probably the largest and grandest in the world, 
and are said to have cost $100,000,000. During the Prussian 
war, Versailles was the headquarters of the Prussian army, 
and in the Palace at the close of the war King William was 
made Emperor of Germany. To the honor of the Germans 
be it said that while the Palace was used constantly by them, 
both it and the grounds were entirely uninjured. The Prus- 
sians even covered the pictures to protect them from injury. 
The Palace is interesting largely from its great galleries of 
paintings and sculpture. The collection is nearly as extensive 
as the Louvre but not so valuable. The magnificent gardens 



HOME AGAIN. 1 63 

with their great ornamental fountains are, however, the chief 
attraction. So extensive are the fountains that to have them 
playing a single day costs the government $2,000. Since the 
war they are played in full force only two or three times a 
month, and then always on Sunday. The walks, statuary, 
Orangerie and wonderfully varied forms of fountains make 
the Park a place in which a day can be spent with the great- 
est pleasure. 

Of Paris, as a whole, we get the impression of a beautiful city, 
one where everything seems to be done for^effect. The broad 
boulevards, well-paved streets and thousands of fine public 
buildings, make it a city to be looked at with admiration. The 
traveler will find that it will take weeks to go over satisfacto- 
rily what we have indicated briefly in this chapter. As to 
what he will think of the Parisians, it depends largely on the 
kind of a hotel he happens' to patronize, how badly he is 
cheated in the shops, how French cooking agrees with him, 
and his many and varied experiences in getting along with 
those with whom he comes in contact. The world has but 
one Paris. 



CHAPTER XX. 
HOME AGAIN. 



IEAVING Paris by early train we go by Rouen, which we 
look at with longing eyes, as we have not time for a more 
extended acquaintance than the passing train gives us. It is 



164 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

said to have some examples of the finest mediaeval Gothic 
architecture in the world. The city is of interest, also, as 
prominently associated with the romantic history of Joan of 
Arc. This portion of France is well cultivated and has many 
manufactories, every little place through which we pass being 
well dotted with tall chimneys. 

At Dieppe, where the steamer is to be taken for New Haven, 
we are delayed a few hours waiting for the proper tide. The 
time permits us to go hastily over the town which is supported 
largely by fishing interests and by the travelers who come to 
the bathing establishments for a few months in summer. The 
town is essentially Norman in its characteristics, and one 
occasionally has a glimpse of the curious head dresses which 
were in fashion a hundred years ago. From the steamer, as 
we approach England, the long lines of chalk cliffs along the 
shore look almost as if they had been painted white. Land- 
ing at New Haven we are not able to go to Brighton, an 
English watering place which is near, but has few attractions 
for the traveler aside from its very fine Aquarium. It is 
something of a consolation, however, for us to know that 
although we cannot see this we have been through the one at 
the Crystal Palace near London. Hastening on over the green 
fields of " merry England " a ride of three or four hours brings 
us to London, from which after a few hours delay we hurry on 
to Glasgow where we take steamer for New York, which we 
reach after a prosperous voyage of ten days. After the vigi- 
lant custom house officials have gone over and through our 
baggage, and we are allowed to go out into the street, we feel 
that we are at home once more and that our trip to Europe 
has ended. 



HOME AGAIN. 165 

The reader may ask how the benefits of such hasty travel 
seem to me, now that several months have passed since my 
return. If one has time and means for more deliberate travel, 
of course such rapid work would not be advisable, but as a 
choice between this and not going at all, or waiting to go at 
some indefinite time in the future, one ought not to hesitate 
a moment, but take the present opportunity. This is particu- 
larly true of young people, for on them the beneficial effect 
of judicious foreign travel is most marked. The impressions 
made on their minds by the grand and beautiful things of the 
Old World are more permanent than on those who are older, 
and their views of life and of foreign nations are made far 
more liberal and comprehensive. Then the young man or 
woman has the benefits and pleasures of the tour as a fund of 
enjoyment for the remainder of his life. He will be far more 
likely to go again and make a longer tour than one who has 
never been. I think I have seldom seen a person who has 
been abroad once who is not more anxious than ever to go 
again. 

As I recall the last trip and go over in my mind the places 
visited, I can bring before me a pretty vivid picture of most of 
them, and even of places where we were five years ago a good 
general impression remains. Some things need to be seen 
but once to be remembered forever. No one who has had 
even a five minute's look at the lofty snow-covered peak of Mt. 
Blanc, glistening in the sunlight, or at the wonderful propor- 
tions of the ruined Colosseum can ever forget the impression 
made upon the memory. As I think of my hurried trips 
abroad in the brief interval of a summer vacation, imperfect 

and unsatisfactory as they were in many respects, I would not 
11 



l66 TWO MONTHS IN EUROPE. 

recall them and give up the pleasure and profit they have 
afforded me, for hardly any consideration, and I now look for- 
ward with the greatest eagerness to the time which I hope 
will come in the not far distant future, when a more extended 
residence abroad and a better appreciation of what the old 
world has in store for one who would give her museums and 
libraries their careful attention, will be made a living reality 
with me. 

From the first I have most painfully realized how impossible 
it was for me in the narrow limits to which it was necessary 
to restrict myself, to begin to do justice to the many things of 
interest in the places mentioned, and it has often been with 
great regret that I have been obliged to leave unnoticed things 
in which I was greatly interested and which I am sure would 
have been enjoyed by my readers. As I look back on the 
work I have tried to accomplish, my highest hope is, that 
while I may have interested and benefited somewhat those 
who have followed me in my wanderings over a portion of the 
old world, I have excited in them a desire to know by study 
or travel more of the nations of the past, and of those achieve- 
ments in art and civilization which are the pride and common 
heritage of the entire Caucasian race. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I, pAGE _ 

On the Ocean, ...... r 

CHAPTER II, 

The Scottish Lakes and Stirling Castle, ... 14 

CHAPTER III, 

Edinburgh, ....... 2 ^ 

CHAPTER IV, 

The Land of Scott, . 30 

CHAPTER V, 

London, ..... <-.« 

CHAPTER VI, 

Belgium, 

CHAPTER VI [, 

Up the Rhine, . 

CHAPTER VIII, 

German Watering Places, .... 62 

CHAPTER IX, 

Heidelberg, .... 55 

CHAPTER X, 

The Swiss Lakes, ...... 76 

CHAPTER XI, 

Mont Blanc, ..... S4 



*6S CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XII, 

' PAGE. 

Genoa and Pisa, 

93 

CHAPTER XIII, 

Naples, . . „ 

98 

CHAPTER XIV, 

Rome, . . , 
106 

CHAPTER XV, 

Florence, 

119 

CHAPTER XVI, 

Venice ' I26 

CHAPTER XVII, 

Northern Italy, .... j-,5 

CHAPTER XVIII, 

The Paris Exposition, 

CHAPTER XIX, 

Paris, 

/•••• • 150 

CHAPTER XX, 

Home Again, ^ 



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